Wilted Petals
by KC-Z
Summary: All Linda wanted to do was visit an art exhibit with her brother. Now things were chasing her and trying to kill her, and there's no safe place to hide. She's trapped in the world of a twisted artist, and there's no way out. This is a story based on the storyline of Ib, but with my own OCs. Rated T for minor language and some blood. Adventure, Mystery, Romance, Horror
1. 1- A Fabricated Beginning

**PART 1**

In the early afternoon under a gray sky, Linda went with her younger brother to an art gallery which featured only the works of Guertena. Leo ran ahead, giddy with excitement. Then, out of nowhere, Leo stopped abruptly.

"Hey sis?" He asked, spinning around.

"Yeah?" Linda replied, easily catching up to the young boy.

"You didn't bring your cigarettes, did you?" Leo asked hopefully. Linda let out a rueful laugh.

"Of course not, hun, I promised, remember?" She ruffled Leo's hair. Leo lit up and immediately responded with,

"Good! Smoking kills your brain. That's why you're a dumb dumb!" The boy grinned and then bounded into the gallery leaving behind a mockingly shocked Linda.

"Hey, meanie! Wait up! I have to check us in!" Linda ran after Leo into the gallery. The door opened to reveal a hallway and reception desk. There wasn't much else except for a huge poster advertising the gallery and stairs leading up to the left of the receptionist. The deep sea creature on the poster was what had intrigued Linda to come in the first place. It was just so mysterious. She loved it. Walking up to the reception desk, she saw Leo inching towards the end of the hall where it opened up into a part of the gallery. "Leo, stay. You need a pass or something." She turned to the gray-haired receptionist. "Hello, may I have two tickets? One adult and one child." Linda held out fifteen dollars.

"Sure thing." The receptionist took the money and reached under the desk to pull out a bracelet and a small pin. He handed the bracelet to Linda, gesturing towards Leo and then handed Linda the pin. "Please put that on your shirt where we can see it. Also, make sure to return it when you have completed your personal tour of the gallery." The receptionist grinned mysteriously at Linda as she suspiciously put the pin on the bottom of her shirt. Her black hair would've covered the pin had she put it near the top. Leo, oblivious to it all, was jumping up and down barely able to contain his excitement.

"Let's go!" Leo made a small dash towards the end of the hall.

"Come here you little rascal." Linda ran after him and grabbed his hand, took out the bracelet and wrapped it around his wrist. Leo then started tugging on Linda's shirt.

"Hey, sis. Sis. Sis. Sis!"

"What?" Linda drawled, smiling but feigning annoyance.

"I have an idea! You go look up stairs and I go over here and we look at all the cool stuff and meet back here to report things!" Leo beamed as if he had just come up with the greatest idea in the world. Linda let out a small laugh and ruffled his hair.

"Sure thing, kid." Kneeling down so that she was face to face with Leo, Linda pointed a finger at Leo and playfully cautioned, "But those reports better be top notch or I'm afraid I'll have to sever your head." She emphasized her point by taking her finger and sliding it across her neck. Leo looked frightful but nevertheless saluted Linda.

"Aye aye, captain!" Then the young boy ran straight into the exhibit.

"Hey! Make sure to not cause a ruckus!" Linda yelled after Leo. Shaking her head and laughing, she made her way upstairs. The exhibit featured many paintings on the walls and sculptures in the halls. Enthralled, Linda walked through the museum hoping to find the one depicted in the poster downstairs. She passed by couples and families enjoying the exhibit together. There were even those who just wanted to go by themselves.

Turning down a hallway, she saw three sculptures that unnerved her. They were simply mannequins, but they were headless and dark. Curious, she made her way to the stand and read the plaque out loud. "Death of an Individual. Dark," she commented before continuing on her tour. Passing a white sofa, she turned the corner to find a large abstract painting framed on the wall. The painting drew her in like a whispered promise. She found herself reaching a hand up and faintly touching it. The painting seemed to hum under her faint touch. The name plaque said, "Fabricated World", and right as the words entered her mind, the lights flickered a bit, but stayed on. Lingering on the painting, she shook her head; she was here to enjoy the gallery, not just this painting. Linda walked out of the hall and turned the corner to a part of the gallery she hadn't visited yet. That was when she noticed something off.

The eerie silence was deafening and there was nobody in the halls anymore. Linda sped down stairs in a panicked haste. The lights flickered again, but this time, they shut off. "LEO!" Linda screamed. _Where did he go?!_ Linda groped along the walls of the gallery but eventually broke into a run after her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. However, not a single soul was to be found. Linda ran towards the entrance hoping he somehow made it outside, but the doors were bolted shut. _Maybe he went upstairs without me noticing._ Linda thought desperately as she clambered upstairs.

"Leo! Where are you?!" Linda cried out, on the verge of tears. She had lost the only living relative that gave a damn about her. The stress made her insane and she reached for a cigarette only to find out that she promised Leo she'd leave it at home. Linda sighed and put her hand in her pocket anyways and felt something metal. At least she had her lighter. She pulled it out and lit it, even if just to stare at the flame. It soothed her in a way. However, this time, it revealed something as well. Black footprints made their way into the darkness the lighter couldn't reach. Cautiously Linda followed the painted footprints towards the wall with the captivating painting. Fabricated World seemed to glisten as she neared with her lighter. Fearing that she would set the painting to flames, Linda closed her lighter and placed it back in her pocket. While she was looking at the painting, she suddenly noticed that paint was leaking from the edge of the frame, spilling onto the floor a little. However, when Linda neared the paint to inspect it, most of the paint had seeped into the wall, leaving behind some words.

"come down below linda  
if you ever want to leave this  
Hell.

The black paint dripped down from the word 'Hell' and sank into the ground. Suddenly, letters seeped up from the ground. All in all, the letters spelled,"COME LINDA".**{A/N: Well, they were supposed to spell COME LINDA with spaces between all the letters, but apparently, this website can't handle the spaces...}**

"Down below, as in downstairs?" She whispered to herself as she got up and slowly treaded into the downstairs gallery. There was a small sign next to a painting titled "A Well-Meaning Hell". The sign read,

"Welcome to the World of Guertena"

We truly thank you for attending today.  
We're currently holding an exhibition  
for the great artist Weiss Guertena.  
We hope you deeply enjoy the art of  
the late Guertena, whose creations  
carry such mystery and beauty both.

This time, the word 'both' was streaked with black paint and rewritten over it were the words 'and LIFE.' Linda had no idea what that meant, but it scared her. Turning around, she saw, in the middle of the floor, was the very painting she had wanted to see in the first place. Even though she was on high alert, she found herself walking around to the plaque and reading the inscription.

"Abyss of the Deep"

A world where man will never stand…  
To realize that world, I decided that  
I would engrave it within the canvas.

Then, the ground shook as one of the velvet ropes that had formed a barrier around the painting fell off and landed on the ground with a loud thunk. The paint seeped up again spelling "C O M E". Linda walked around to where the rope fell off. This painting in the ground also seemed to glisten, but it also seemed to ripple like water. Linda looked around one last time, hoping to spot any living thing and desperately wishing that it was all some sick, elaborate prank, but alas, the dark gallery sustained its eerie silence all around her. _Well_, she thought, _I can only escape if I actually begin_. And with that thought, Linda plunged into the shadowy waters of the painting and everything went black.

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**A/N: Woo hoo! I HAVE FINALLY BEGUN! All those days of just thinking about this and now it's a reality... :'D It's all thanks to Camp Nanowrimo really. Haha, well, actually, it more all thanks to my cabin mates at Camp Nanowrimo XD Without them, this story would've gotten nowhere... Well, now that it has begun, I hope you guys enjoy it! Feedback is welcome! Even negative feedback, but only if it's called for. Unnecessary, mean feedback is mean. D:  
Big thanks to InuChimera7410 for being an awesome beta!  
**

**EDIT: Since I can't really reply to those guest reviewers, I am going to start those replies at the bottom of whatever chapter you reviewed so it would be easier to get back to you guys! **


	2. 2- The Weight of Your Own Life

There was a loud splash as Linda emerged, surprisingly dry, from the "Abyss of the Deep" onto some green stairs. In fact, the stairs weren't the only thing that was green. The whole room, from the wallpaper to the floor and even ceiling, was adorned in a drab green color. At the end of the stairs, Linda looked around and saw two identical paintings mirrored on either side of the stairs. The only difference was that one had an underlying green tone and the other had an underlying black tone. Looking to her left, Linda saw a writing desk of sorts and a door at the end. She walked over to the door, but no luck. It was locked.

Linda then made her way to the other end of the hallway where the wall was plastered with letters. "COME", they spelled. At the very end, there was a beautiful black rose in a vase on a table. The table was blocking the door and Linda had no other leads. Not daring to trust anything, Linda left the rose and tried to push the table out of the way, but the table wouldn't budge. Linda walked around it to see if it was caught on anything, and when she did, she noticed that there was a sign that read,

"You and the rose are united,  
know the weight of your own life."

_So I'm somehow connected to this rose?_ Linda wondered as she picked it up. Shaking her head, she put the stem of the rose in her pocket and resumed her pathetic attempts to push the table. However, it was a lot easier to push now and Linda effortlessly moved it out of the way. The door was unlocked, and she walked in to find a painting of a woman whose hair was flowing out of the frame and onto the carpeted ground. Beneath the painting was another sign that read

"When the rose wilts,  
so too will you rot away."

The painting was smiling sweetly at Linda, a sweet toothless, closed smile. Her eyes were closed and there on the floor right in front of her was a key. Linda bent down to pick it up, but when she looked up again, the paining had changed.

The woman's eyes and mouth were open and her tongue stuck out like a lizard's. Linda was extremely unnerved by the sudden change. Still clutching the key, Linda shakily retreated out of the room. After closing the door, Linda felt the fear rising in her chest. She couldn't help but think of what the sign had said back in the gallery. "_And LIFE." Were the paintings alive?_ She wondered before stopping dead in her tracks. The walls, which had spelled COME earlier, had changed. The letters now spelled FEIHT in dripping, crimson paint. Linda began walking towards the stairs. She has had enough.

BOOM BOOM BOOM.

Linda jumped back as the paint fell from the ceiling in groups and formed the word on the ground. Looking back, Linda realized that from that view, the letters on the wall also spelled the same word. THIEF. _Thief. Was it because of this flower?!_ Linda ran back to the vase and attempted to put it back. The table had moved back to where it was originally, in front of the door, but this time, there was a green rose wedged in the vase. Linda tried to put the black rose back, but in her attempt, one of the petals broke off. Sharp pain shot through her body, and left her gingerly holding the rose. She wasn't going to steal another item, and she couldn't return the black rose, so she left the green rose in the vase and carefully put the black rose in her pocket so that the stem was securely in, but the petals were exposed to no harm. The pain eased up ever so slightly after a while and she made her way back to the stairs. However, going back that way wasn't an option anymore for where the stairs used to be was an impassive wall.

Linda stared agape at the wall and then began to pound on it, but to no avail. Giving up, she reached into her other pocket for her lighter, but her fingers closed around another object. _The key!_ In her haste, she had forgotten about the locked door at the end of the hall. Seeing as how she had nowhere else to go, Linda walked to the end of the hall with the writing desk and the door. When she walked past the desk, she heard a faint scribbling noise and looked at the journal on the desk. The journal had something scrawled on a page.

**_{A/N: This is supposed to be in Greek but I can't change font! ;A;}_**

**_Raven, Linda 003et2: Survived Trial One._**

Linda had no clue as to what the heck it was. It was all Greek to her. What she did know was that the ink was fresh, and still wet, but there was no one who could've been there and gone so quickly. A shiver ran down her spine and Linda decided to ignore the book. Cautiously, she went to go unlock the door. The moment the key entered the keyhole, it dissolved into the door and disappeared. Linda was shocked, but nevertheless pushed through the door and began her escape.

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**A/N: Before you guys kill yourselves trying to figure out what the numbers mean, they don't mean anything XD I couldn't be creative so I closed my eyes and picked numbers and letters! :****D Sorry about that ^^; Well, here's chapter two! Hope you guys liked it! Feedback is amazing! :D  
**

**Thanks InuChimera7410 for being my Beta cat :3!**


	3. 3- An Ant's Resolve

The door opened up into another green room like the one she had come from. There was a pillar in the middle of the hallway directly in front of her and mostly paintings of insects to her right. The latter path looked less ominous so Linda went that way and found a door at the end. However, path came to a quick end when the door opened to reveal a gaping hole in the middle of the room. There was no hope going around it because the hole stretched from wall to wall. Not willing to chance a jump, Linda decided to brave the other hallway with the pillar. Walking back, Linda paused when she saw a rather large ant crawling around aimlessly. She had no idea how she had missed it before. Linda was planning on squishing it before it could attack her when it spoke up.

"Hi! I'm an ant." Linda stopped mid step and gasped. The ant paid no heed to the fact that it almost died and continued talking. "I love paintings. My painting is especially cool. I'd like to see it again, but it's kind of far away…"

"Umm," Linda started uncertainly, "I-I think I can help if you tell me where it is." _Look at me, I'm talking to an ant. What's next?_ Linda rolled her eyes at that thought and the ant looked up at her and nodded before going back to aimlessly wandering around. Linda shook her head and took a moment to wonder what was wrong with this place before walking to the pillar, taking extra caution not to step on the ant. At the pillar, she saw a small plaque.

"Beware the edges," it said. Linda carefully walked around the pillar, careful to not touching the edges of the pillar. She really had no idea if that was what the plaque meant, but she did it anyways, just to be safe. However, when Linda rounded the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks. This hallway was giving off a bad vibe. It felt ominous somehow. Nevertheless, she shook it off and kept walking. She wouldn't be able to finish the gallery by fearing every little thing that SEEMED scary. Yet, barely a couple of steps into the hallway, a roar resonated from the walls as a shadowy arm shot out from the right wall reaching for Linda.

"Shit!" Linda jumped back and pressed herself on the opposite wall away from the hand. _Then again, _she thought, breathing hard, _if I ignore my senses, I might never finish the gallery ALIVE. _The arm only went so far, so it couldn't touch her but instead stuck out of the wall like a sore thumb, wriggling and writhing. Fearing that another arm would come out of the wall she was on, she jerked away from the wall and stood trembling in the middle. Linda walked slowly through the hallway but then another roar sounded through the hall and she immediately pressed herself to the left wall again, but this time, an arm shot out from the wall she'd taken refuge on, passing through her and tearing off a petal of her rose. Linda fell back as the pain seared through her body again.

When the pain had subsided a bit, she looked at her rose. _Eight. There are only eight petals left on this rose. What is this? Some sick Beauty and the Beast horror film?_ Linda thought bitterly as she picked herself up. Looking back, she saw that both creepy arms could only reach a little distance and that if she were to place herself directly in the middle, she could walk by without them touching her.

Staying strictly in the middle, Linda continued to walk, trying to take up the least amount of space she could. She was nearing the end of the hallway when another roar was heard. She braced for impact as a split second later, two arms lunged out, from both walls, and tried to grab at her. Luckily, her theory proved to be true for neither of the arms were able to reach her. Relieved, Linda relaxed a bit and continued walking. She reached the end of the hallway and let her guard down when, with no warning at all, an arm shot out from the wall directly in front of her.

Linda screamed and closed her eyes, but when she felt no pain, she looked down and saw the hand lingering, millimeters away, from her neck. Stepping back slowly, she let out a deep breath as she looked to the side. The ant painting was hanging on the wall near the black arm. Linda walked up to the painting and decided to take it off. _I'm not stealing since I'm helping something in this place, right? And who knows? Maybe the ant can help me get across the hole in the floor._ Linda reasoned as she reached up and took the painting off the wall. Only then did she notice a door to the side, but when she tried to open it, she found it was locked. Linda sighed and hauled the ant painting back to the ant, easily avoiding the writhing hands. The ant looked up when she got back.

"Oh. That's my painting. It's just as cool as I remember it." The ant sort of just stared at its painting for a while before saying, "You know ants are really strong? I can hold up to twenty times my own weight." Then the ant went back to wandering aimlessly. Linda scrunched her eyebrows and wondered if the painting could support her weight, since it was a painting of an ant. She went back into the room with the hole and laid the painting across the hole. Sure enough, it formed a perfect bridge and the hole could not be seen. Linda took a cautious step on the frame and then on the canvas, but when the painting held, she walked across in two steps. There was a squishing sound when Linda got the other side. She looked down at her feet but didn't see any crushed bug, so she decided it must've been through the door at the end.

This door was thankfully unlocked and Linda was able to walk into the room. There was a sculpture like the one she saw in the real gallery that sent chills up her spine, and on the floor, lay a green key. Linda cautiously bent down, and picked up the key.

Suddenly, there was a small roar from the sculpture as it threw its arms up and ran after Linda. Linda screamed and ran back out the door to find that the ant in the painting was crushed and bloody, the crimson liquid seeping through out the painting. _That was the squish sound earlier! I'm so sorry ant! Wait, _Linda stopped dead before the crushed ant, _what if it can't carry me across anymore?! What if- _Linda's thoughts were interrupted by the door slamming open. The statue that had chased her earlier opened the door. Looming in the hallway, it rushed towards Linda. _Shit, shit, shit, shit!_ Linda ran over the painting anyways. She panicked as she heard the canvas tearing open under her feet but was able to lunge forward at the last minute and barely scramble safely onto the other side. The statue had also made a lunge at the same time, but, fortunately for her, though unfortunately for it, the statue was a couple of steps behind and plunged straight down into the gaping hole and shattered below. Breathing heavily, Linda got up and walked to the door with shaky steps. She walked back out and calmed herself as she made her way to the door that was locked earlier. The key dissolved through the keyhole again and Linda walked through the threshold to reveal a tannish room that strongly resembled a cat. She wasn't sure if things were getting weirder or worse.

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**A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading this! I really appreciate it! And as always, I would love feedback if you have any! If I need to improve on something, feel free to let me know! I'm going to go on a small break right now, I know it's pretty early on to take a break, but I have AP testing and so I'll be back in two weeks! Sorry guys!**

**I also really want to thank InuChimera7410 for slashing through my mistakes with her mighty beta pen! (Or laptop, y'know, whatever.) She has a great HieiXOC fanfiction if you guys want to go check it out! Just don't leave me forever since she's a lot better at writing than I am ;A;**

**Oh! And If you spot any mistakes, like grammar wise and spelling wise, let me know! This website is being mean and it omits my letters... Idk why D;**


	4. 4- A Chorus of Meows

**A/N:I couldn't actually wait a full two weeks... lol so here's Chapter 4! Enjoy!~ (There's a lot more profanity in this one... :O so beware... )**

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The wall in front of her was outlined in a way so that the tan wall was shaped into what looked like the head of a cat. Everything else was painted black. There were also eyes painted on the wall and a fish shaped hole right where the mouth should have been. There were also doors to her sides, one on the right and one on the left. Linda tried the door on her right first. It opened to reveal a room full of headless mannequins, boxes, and sculptures of large heads. After taking one look around the room, she turned around and walked out. _Nope. I am NOT dealing with that, _she thought as she made her way to the other door.

This room seemed a lot friendlier with eight pillars running throughout the room. There were four to her right and four to her left. In the back, she saw one painting of a knife chopping a fish in two. _ Hey, maybe I can somehow use that fish for the cat wall._ Linda thought as she walked towards the painting. However, as she crossed the pillar closest to her on her right, there was a scribble sound as a stickman appeared with painted words beneath him.

"Play hide and seek?" Linda had just finished reading the quote when the stickman disappeared. Looking around, Linda noticed that each pillar, except the one where the stickman had just been, had curtains and a button underneath. _So he wants me to find him, _Linda thought. _Alright, I'll play your little game. It's better than going back to that creepy statue room._ Linda walked to the pillar directly across the first one and pressed the button. The curtains drew back with a swish and revealed a picture of a bloody knife. Then, out of nowhere, an invisible knife slashed through Linda's body.

Linda gasped and staggered back, clutching her chest. The pain was so immense. She felt like she had been cut in half, though there were no physical wounds. A petal fell off her rose and floated to the ground.

_What? I didn't even touch the rose! _Linda protested. Then a realization hit her. _Maybe if I get injured, so does the rose… It's as if we're connected. Well, shit. _Linda staggered into the pillar behind her and slid down the wall and sat there. She was too scared to move, but she kept telling herself that at the end of this, she would be out and Leo would most likely be waiting for her. If she gave up now, there would be no one to really watch out for Leo plus the fact that she could be stuck here forever. She didn't like how either of those things sounded and that was enough to give her the will to go on.

Linda got up and walked to the pillar next to the damn knife. _Surely they wouldn't put two bad things next to each other, right? _ Linda reasoned and braced herself for pain as she pressed the button.

SWISH!

The curtain flew open to reveal a bloodied hand print stamped on the canvas.

_Fuck._ Linda thought as she tried to back away. However, the hand stretched out of the painting and rushed towards her, slapping itself against her face. The whole process was surprisingly painless, but after the pressure of the hand disappeared, Linda understood why. There was now a large red hand print in her field of vision making it extremely hard to see anything. Linda tried rubbing her eyes, but the red didn't disappear or lessen at all.

Giving up on that row and her vision repairs, Linda walked across from that pillar to the one next to the first one and pressed the button. The curtains showed a painting of a crescent moon. Suddenly, the room got darker as if the lights were dimmed. _Really?! I can't see as it is and I just had to pick the one that make things darker?! Way to go Linda. You're a fucking genius._ Linda gritted her teeth and groped her way to the next one.

After pressing the button, she was actually glad that she couldn't see much at the moment because- through what she could make out- she was sure it was a painting of a naked lady. Abruptly and, quite honestly out of nowhere, Linda heard a high pitch scream as the painting reached out and slapped her hard across her face. The curtains closed quickly afterwards as if in a final 'humph'.

Linda caressed her cheek, shocked by her situation. Now she had the 'privilege' to add violator on her list of ailments. Linda quietly made her way to the next pillar with more ease as her eyes continued to adjust to what she could see of the darkness. Numbly pressing the next button, Linda's shock and self-pity was quickly replaced with horror and despair. Though she couldn't see much, the gallery was being cruel and allowed her to see just enough to understand what the painting depicted. This sinister painting depicted Linda hanging by her leg. Her body parts seemed to be bent askew and the painting was highlighted by the crimson blood which formed the background and was splattered all over her body. Linda tried to close the curtains to no avail and decided to turn her back on it immediately. She couldn't help but hope that nothing of the sort was in the future.

Walking directly across from that painting, Linda shakily stood in front of the pillar and pressed the button. There was a painting of a music note in a circle and it was crossed out. Suddenly, she heard a sharp ringing in her ear. Then, as quickly as it came, it was gone. She almost sighed in relief. _Well that was harmless enough… for once. _

Linda made a move to the next, and last, pillar. _Of course the stickman would be in the last pillar I'd pick, _she thought bitterly. Then, all of a sudden, she realized that she couldn't even hear her footsteps. Linda tried talking, but she couldn't hear anything. _Holy shit, did that make me deaf?!_ Linda started panicking. _Maybe if I find the stickman he'll fix everything._ Linda hastily pressed the last button. The curtains drew back, revealing that damn stickman, but still Linda didn't hear anything. Her eyes averted to the paint scribble that appeared on the wall next to him, but she didn't hear the actual scribbling. Linda struggled to read the words.

"Found me, you get prize," it read, but nothing happened. The room was still dark, the red hand was still in her vision, and she couldn't hear anything! The muffled silence was driving her up the wall. Linda looked frantically around the room and saw that the painting in the back was missing the head of the fish. Looking on the floor, Linda saw that it had fallen on the ground and materialized into a wooden fish head.

Rushing over to it, she picked up the item and put it in her pocket. All of her ailments were still there and she desperately decided that at least if she left the room, maybe things wouldn't be so dark anymore. However, that plan went better than expected because as soon as she walked out of the room, she could hear the door close and she could see the rest of the room clearly, no dumb hand print in her face. Linda didn't even try to understand anything, for she was sure she wouldn't be able to.

She took a deep breath and walked back into the other room.

The lights flickered a bit and Linda walked straight across the room. The statues and statue heads were freaking her out and she wanted to hopefully find the other half of the key and get out as soon as she possibly could. She walked past three statue heads in a row and couldn't help but admire the meticulous detail put into those heads. As she was admiring the eerily realistic detail, she failed to see a heavy plaque on the ground and tripped on it, falling flat on her face. Linda cursed as she spat out a mouthful of carpet and picked herself up to dust herself off.

All of a sudden there was a loud scraping noise behind her as a large head statue shook violently and slid out of place. Linda spun around, expecting the worse. She saw that the middle head statue had wriggled out of place and had begun to follow her. It slid along the floor as if some unseen force was dully pushing it towards her. It was the first anticlimactic moment she'd experienced in this twisted gallery. The noise was the scariest thing about it.

Linda placed a hand on her hip and stood by patiently waiting for it to get nearer. The thing had no arms or legs. It just kept sliding along and Linda was curious to see how it would hurt, or try to hurt, her. Taking slow steps backwards in sync with the statue's forward movements, Linda noticed that the plaque was still there. She sat back amused and wondered how it would get around the plaque to her. That question was quickly answered not a moment later when the statue hit the plaque and came crashing down. Linda's expression quickly changed from bemused to confusion and then to panic as the statue shattered on the ground. Millions of ceramic shards exploded from the statue and Linda quickly brought her hands up to her face to block them. The shards flew everywhere and one lucky shard shot through her defenses and cut a gash on her upper cheek. Linda put her arms down as the blood flowed from the cut.

Silently cursing the statue, Linda pressed her hand to her face and applied pressure to try to stop the bleeding. Cradling her face like a child, Linda walked over to the shards and noticed a stark blue color contrasted among the scattered gray. Carefully clearing away most of the ceramic, so as to not be cut again, Linda picked, or rather fished, out a wooden, blue fish tail.

_I've got it! The other half of the fish key!_ Linda pulled out the fish head she got earlier with her free hand and when she did, she noticed that her rose had been reduced to a mere five petals. _Wait, what?! When did it go down to five?! Damn it. It must've been when I was in the other room. I need to be more careful._ Combining the two fish parts into one, the middle fused and the two halves became a whole. Linda couldn't really walk back the way she came in as the shards were haphazardly strewn everywhere, so she walked up towards another path when she noticed a vase just sitting there. She vaguely recalled having found her rose in a vase originally and figured that maybe if she put the rose back, things would stop attacking her. Linda reached into her pocket and pulled out the rose and placed it in the water-filled vase.

Suddenly, the rose glowed as a beam of light shot out from the vase. Linda saw the petals reforming on her rose and as they did, the pain from everything else she'd been through slowly faded away too. Even the gash on her cheek was healing itself until there was just a thin scab where a gash used to be. Linda wondered if she put the rose back in, would the scab heal too? Then, as quickly as it began, the glowing stopped and her rose had ten petals, once again in full bloom.

Linda contemplated leaving the rose there, but the more she thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. Why would she leave her rose there to be at the mercy of whatever vicious art exhibit that happens to walk by? Even when the wounds are inflicted on her, the rose would lose petals anyways. At least with the rose on her person, she would be more in control of her lifeline. Linda decided to just take the rose along with her. She picked the rose out of the vase and noticed that the vase had no more water. _Maybe it's the water that heals the rose, _she thought as she pocketed it.

Linda walked back outside to the cat room and put the fish key into the hole. It clicked into place and the whole room erupted into a chorus of meows. Linda jumped back, the sudden noise startling her, as the wall where she put the key in sunk into itself and revealed another passageway. Concerned about her constantly pounding heart, Linda shook her head and urged onwards.

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**A/N: :3 Silly Linda, getting all sorts of injured like that. And I might have to wash that potty mouth of yours with soap! D: Well, this chapter is a lot longer than the others O_o But I hope you guys liked this chapter and stay tuned for updates! :D As always, reviews are loved almost as much as you guys reading my fanfic :D I'm excited for Chapter 5! Until next time!~ lessthan3**

**(Oh yeah! Big thanks to InuChimera7410, or should I say Jar B Kat! XD hehe typos are the beginning of beautiful nicknames lessthan3) I guess FFN just doesn't like less than signs...**


	5. 5- Ruined Lies and Ruined Liars

**A/N: Wheeew. This is a long chapter... Well, as always, read, review, and enjoy! :D**

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This new room branched off into three sections. The one on Linda's left was a small room with little furnishings. There was a painting of a blue smiley face etched onto a black canvas, a completely white painting, and another weird writing desk. The odd thing about the room was that the blue smiley face in the canvas had a tongue that stuck out and wiggled back and forth. Linda decided to ignore that particular painting since she didn't want to deal with anymore corrupt ones. However, the painting clearly didn't like that because it spat a gooey blue glob at her when she attempted to walk pass it. Linda jerked back and avoided the glob just in time to watch it sail by and sink into the ground with a hiss. _Okay, now I am DEFINITELY not going anywhere near that thing. _Linda sidestepped around the glob and continued to the all-white painting next to it. Curious as to why anyone would display a blank painting, Linda walked up to before she could properly examine it, there was a scribble from the writing desk again. Linda turned around to peer at the book to see if the gibberish words had appeared again.

**_{A/N: Again. Greeeeek! You know what? Dramatic irony. There. XD}_**

**_Raven, Linda 003et2: Survived Trial Two_**

Linda didn't know much about what it said, but she did know that whatever it was, it was the first thing on the page. Flipping through the book, she saw many other symbols like the one she kept seeing. The first half looked like a name, but she couldn't really decipher what the second part meant. She just knew it was there for everyone else too. Linda came to the conclusion that the gallery was keeping a tab on the people who came through. _I wonder how many of these people got out alive,_ Linda pondered as she flipped the book back to the page it started out on. Not really wanting to elaborate on that depressing thought, Linda turned back to the white painting she had originally intended to inspect.

The painting really was just white. Even looking at it from different angles didn't make a difference. Linda stared at the painting, puzzled, and just when she was about to give up, she noticed a small red speck of dust in the middle of the painting. However, when she tried to blow it off, it didn't budge. Linda reached up and tried to brush it off, but then she realized that it was actually a part of the painting. _I guess it's not blank after all._ It was a very miniscule thing and, squinting closer, Linda was able to make out a barely noticeable red 9. _Hmm, that's weird. Why would they try so hard to conceal a number nine? I'm actually surprised I missed it. Red isn't exactly a subtle color…_ Linda made a mental note of the nine and then turned around to see if she could find anything else that was odd about the room.

After a minute or so of trying, Linda decided that there really wasn't anything else and she walked off in the opposite direction, passing a hallway perpendicular to the path she was walking on. She would go back there later. Continuing on her current path, Linda saw a red protruding object on the wall to her left at the very end of the hall. Then, out of nowhere, there was a scribble noise to her immediate left that made Linda jumped a little. She stopped to read what it said and saw what appeared to be a warning in glaring yellow paint.

"BEWARE OF LIPS" it read. _What the heck? Lips? _Linda furrowed her brow in confusion as she diverted her attention towards the end of the hallway. Sure enough, the protruding objects were actually lips. Linda approached it cautiously but stood at a distance. She didn't dare go closer. However, she didn't need to, since the lips spoke out anyways.

"Hungry… Give food…" It spoke in a booming voice. Then, without warning, it stretched out and tried to bite Linda. Linda jumped back, but, luckily for her, she was far back enough for it to miss her completely. The lips retracted into place and Linda stood still, baffled. She wasn't sure what it wanted, but she was sure as hell that she didn't want to be … _Err lip food? Wall food?_ Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be her. Linda slowly slinked away as if to not upset the lips again. Once she was a good enough distance away, Linda turned around and walked towards the hallway she had passed up earlier. At the entrance, she noticed a little plaque causally scattered on the floor. Linda directed her gaze to the ground and read it out loud.

"Just when you've forgotten…" _Forgotten what?! _Linda looked desperately at the hallway in front of her and felt a small sense of déjà vu. The hallway in front of her was about the same size and had the same ominous air as…. as… as what?! Linda couldn't figure it out, but she felt like she needed to or she wouldn't make it out alive…. _Or I won't make it out alive… Wait! Beware the edges! I think._ Linda felt as if she just had the epiphany of the century, even though it was uncertain.

Tentatively, Linda walked down the middle of the hallway. Halfway through, Linda began to wonder if she was wrong, but then the familiar roar boomed through the hallway. She didn't even have time to think before the arm shot out from the wall. Linda only jumped a little bit, but she was glad to find that, like before, the arm couldn't really reach her when she stood in the middle. Linda let out a deep breath or relief and continued walking. At the end, Linda saw that the hallway split up into two paths. The one to her left had a door at the end wall, and the one on her right had realistic dolls hanging by their legs in an array of red and blue clothing. _Yeah, no, that's not going happen. _Then Linda thought a bit about everything that has happened so far. _Well, at least it's not going to happen willingly._ Linda immediately turned left and walked towards the door. When Linda got to the door, she noticed that there were yellow words painted on the side.

"The Liar's Room"

Linda wasn't sure what it meant, but she had a feeling she was about to find out. Linda tried the door knob and was mildly surprised that it opened. She was relieved though because she hated looking for keys or stinkin' pieces.

Inside of the room, there were six paintings of dark skinned figures clothed in different colored garments on the wall opposite to her. There was also a door directly in the middle of the paintings, evenly splitting it so that there were three paintings on either side of that door. Each painting had small inscriptions in yellow paint underneath them. Linda walked to the one of the far left, wary of the painting jumping out at any second. Up close, she could read the inscription. The first one was a dark figure clothed in green. The faceless figure looked friendly enough, or at least non-threatening. He, Linda was guessing it was a he, was standing there with one hand by his pocket and one hand frozen in a casual wave.

"Stand in front of the statue,  
go west 3 steps, then south 1 step.  
That's the answer!"

Linda wondered if all these paintings were liars or something, because she didn't see any statue. Nevertheless, she continued reading. The next painting seemed more aloof. He was standing there in a brown garment, which faintly resembled a sleeveless hoodie, with his hands casually hanging by his side. He didn't have a face, but if he did, Linda suspected it would be an indifferent one whereas the last one she saw would be smiling.

"Stand in front of the statue,  
go east 4 steps, then north 2 steps.  
That's the answer!"

The next one was dressed in yellow. His posture seemed like one of those soldiers. His arms were an equal distance apart from his body and his legs were pressed together. He reminded Linda of an arrow. It looked like he could be holding two weapons the way his arm leaned away from his body, but Linda brushed aside the thought as she read the inscription.

"The one in white speaks the truth!"

The one in white? Linda looked down the row and saw a dark figure in a long white dress. She, Linda was pretty sure it was a she, seemed to be doing a dance of sorts as one arm was lifted high into the sky and the other arm held the hem of her dress, frozen in mid-twirl.

"Stand in front of the statue,  
go east 2 steps, then south 2 steps.  
That's the answer!"

_Where is this statue?! They are talking about? IS there even a statue?_ Then Linda remembered the door. There was a loud smack as her palm connected to her face. How could she forget the glaring door in the middle of the room? Dragging her fingers slowly off her face, she eyed the door warily. Did she dare? _Yes._ Linda hastily ran to the door and grabbed the door knob, turning it, before she could change her mind. In the room, there were small squares lined up on the floor throughout the room in a uniform manner. The squares seemed very loose, like there was something underneath them, but Linda didn't want to give in to her curiosity and end up dead. Because curiosity killed the cat, right? Linda directed her gaze towards the middle of the room where a gleaming statue of armor stood. Linda walked up to it and felt a cool breeze through the holes in its helmet. However, it wasn't just a nice breeze, it carried words from the statue to Linda's ears.

"There's an odd one out…" Linda finally understood. If there was an odd one out, that means that one of those paintings in The Liar's Room is a truth-teller, for lack of a better word. Linda ran back outside the room to read the remaining paintings. The one to the immediate right of the door was dressed in blue and had one hand tucked in his pocket, and the other hand was hanging loosely by his side. He seemed to be very calm. Underneath, it read:

"The only truth-speaker wears green!"

_That means that the green one is a liar as well._ Linda crossed off green and blue from her mental list. When she did, she felt the very air go cold. The paintings that looked down on her seemed to give off a malicious vibe. The chill atmosphere she got from the blue-clothed figure dissipated and she could've sworn the faceless face scowled at her. Linda shook the goose bumps off and moved onto the last painting, skipping over the white one. This last one was clothed in a red dress flowing to her knees. Her hands were clasped together to the side, as if she were holding invisible flowers. _Or an invisible axe._ Linda shivered as the thought crossed her mind.

"I agree with the one in yellow!"

_The one in yellow, huh? Yellow agreed with White, so White, Red, and Yellow are all liars. _Linda pondered the riddle with her makeshift names. _That leaves…. The one in brown._ The temperature got even lower as Linda walked back to the brown one. Every painting she passed felt like they were staring daggers into her back. However, when she got to the one with the brown hoodie, she felt the peace and warmth again. _This is definitely the truth._ Linda read his inscription again. When she had it memorized, she looked up into the blank face and couldn't help but feel a sense of immense sorrow. _I may be getting way too attached, but why does it feel like I won't see him again?_ Linda reached up and touched the glass as a sign of gratitude. She felt the painting hum and the sorrow contained behind the glass. _Thank you, s_he mouthed before walking to the door. Linda couldn't help but give the painting one last look before opening the door and walking in.

The statue of armor looked just like it had before. Linda walked up to the statue, counted 4 steps east, and 2 steps north. Taking a deep breath, she pulled up the tile beneath her feet and heard a click. On the back of the tile, there was a small purple 4. _That's it?!_ Linda barely had time to think of a more lengthy response when all of a sudden there was a screeching boom outside her room followed in quick succession by slashing and choking noises and finally the sound of glass shattering. _Oh no._ Linda ran back outside and stumbled into a horrifying scene.

The liars were splattered in a bright crimson liquid. Linda walked around and noticed that each of the liars was holding a knife in their spare hand, except the red one. The yellow one had two knives and the red one was holding a sledgehammer. Besides the blood-like paint, those five paintings were in mint condition, but Linda couldn't say the same about the one who helped her. His frame had been torn off in more than one place and there was a large gaping hole in the bottom right of his glass. The hole splintered off and crimson paint covered his black face. The yellow quote beneath him was replaced by a large slash of blood-like paint. Though all the other paintings were splattered with the crimson paint here and there, the brown one was drowning in it. All the quotes underneath the other paintings had changed to one yellow word.

"Liar!"

Linda couldn't help but notice that on all of the murder weapons, there was that same crimson paint. They all killed him. _But why?! _Linda fumed. _Because he told the fucking truth?! Because he didn't try to kill or ruin me?!_ She hated to see others hurt on her behalf. Linda walked up to the broken painting and she let her anger boil. She had to avenge him. She couldn't just let things end like that! Maybe he was just a painting, or maybe he wasn't even alive, but Linda KNEW she felt his warmth in the cold aura of malice, and she wasn't about to let that warmth die for nothing. Linda slammed her hand against the wall near the shattered painting and rested her head where his chest was. She felt the warm paint pour down onto her face. It felt so much like blood.

_MURDERERS! They're all murderers! _ Linda pulled away from the painting and looked at the painting next to the broken frame. The featureless face seemed to be smiling smugly and mockingly at her. Linda couldn't take it. Pulling her fist back, she slammed it into the blank face. She could feel the smugness change into shock as her fist connected to the glass. Then, there was no more emotion floating around. The glass shattered as Linda rammed her fist into the painting. Shards of glass cascaded down and the gut wrenching pain told Linda that a petal had fallen off of her rose.

But she didn't care.

Blood dripped from her fist making a bloody trail as she moved from liar to liar. Five perfectly good paintings were shattered. All in the face. By the end of the ordeal, Linda had lost 5 petals and her fist was bleeding profusely. The numbness and adrenaline were gone and now the pain rushed to her. Linda pushed it aside and limped out the door, not once looking back at the carnage she'd just caused.

Linda sank down on the wall right outside the door and, using her teeth, tore her right sleeve off and wrapped her bleeding hand with it. She knew she needed to find a vase, but she didn't have high hopes for finding one. After all, she had JUST used one, and, after what she'd just witnessed, she was pretty sure this gallery wasn't very generous. Linda stayed there for a bit to catch her breath and let the pain subside before standing up. The pain had dulled enough to let her walk somewhat normally. Linda decided to brave the hall of dolls, seeing as how she had nothing left to explore, and trudged onwards.

There were a total of six strings, but only five dolls. The last string held a severed doll's foot dangling amicably from the ceiling. Linda didn't even want to consider anything about that. Linda walked past all the dolls and reached a golden door at the end on the hallway to her left. The door was surrounded by green foliage in an indent in the wall. Linda tried to open the door, but there was no doorknob. There was a little combination lock though. Linda saw three rotating dials set at 0 0 0. On top of the lock was a little clue.

"X x X + X = ?"

The large X's each had a specific color. The first X was green, the second red, and the last one was purple. _Wait. I've found a red 9, and a purple 4. Am I just missing green?_ Linda looked around her vicinity. All that was left were the dolls. Linda walked over to the one nearest to the ground. All the other dolls were out of reach. The doll she walked up to was one of the red ones. Linda reached up to the doll to search on its clothes or something for a number. However, the moment when her hand touched the doll, a thud resonated behind her. Linda jumped, quickly turning towards the sound. The other red doll that had been hanging above now laid sprawled out on the ground. There was a white tag sticking out of the doll's clothes. Suspiciously, Linda walked over to the doll and inspected it. Sure enough, there was a green 18 printed finely on the tag. Linda walked back over to the door.

_So 18 x 9 + 4 =… Umm. _Linda pondered over the answer for a bit, casually writing numbers in the air, before putting i on the dial. Math wasn't her strongest subject, but luckily the door clicked and opened. Linda pushed the door and walked into a room full of trees. _This isn't an exit._ Linda thought, disappointed. She was sure this room was going to be a way out. She didn't remember where there were any other doors. Nevertheless, Linda looked around the room for clues, not allowing herself to give up. There was a large painting of a tree on the wall in the back, and in front of her was an apple. Linda walked up to the apple to look at it when it wiggled and fell out of the tree. Linda jumped back in astonishment as it landed with a thud. She carefully picked it up to examine it. It was a wooden apple.

_Well, what use is this if I can't eat it?_ Then Linda remembered the wooden fish. _That served as a key in the weird cat room, maybe this is a key somehow…_Suddenly, Linda remembered something else that didn't make much sense. Well, not a lot of things made sense in this gallery, but they were all connected somehow. The small room at the front gave her the red 9, The Liar's Room revealed the purple 4, and the creepy hanging dolls gave her the green 18. The only 'thing' that didn't really do anything was the… _LIPS!_ Linda quickly pocketed the apple and walked out. _The lips were hungry, right? Maybe this wooden apple is the key to a hidden door or something! And as far-fetched as that is, I wouldn't put it past it that it'll actually work!_ Linda hurriedly made her way back to the lips. While going down the connecting hallway, she made sure to keep clear of the wall and good thing too, for when she made the trip back, an arm shot out from her right and scared the ever living crap out of her – again. Linda screamed and veered off her path onto the opposite wall. Panting, she slowly made her way back to the middle, all the while glaring at the unwelcomed visitor. Linda finished her trek to the lips with the utmost caution. When she got to the wall with the lips, she reached for the apple as it spoke.

"Hungry… Give food…" Linda pulled out the apple as, right on cue, the lips added, "That food… Give to me…" Linda extended her arm out to the lips and prayed that it wouldn't chomp her hand off in the process. The lips stretched out and bit the apple cleanly off of her hand then licked its lips – or it licked itself…? Whatever the proper classification was, Linda could hear the teeth grind the wooden apple to pieces. The crunches were loud and audible. _Thank God it didn't eat my arm._ Linda was sure it could've easily devoured her arm, bone and all. After it finished its meal, the lips spoke again. "This tasty… I let you pass now… Go through my mouth…" _Wait, _Linda thought, _what? Why would I-_ she stopped mid-thought as the 'jaw', or whatever it was the lips were attached to, unhinged like a snake to reveal a passageway through the throat. Linda peered into the dark mouth suspiciously, but she could make out another room at the end of the 'throat'. _Okay. This door beats the cat wall in level of weirdness by a long shot, _Linda grimaced as her foot squished on the tongue and walked through to the other room.

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**A/N: Poor Linda XD I'd be grossed out by tongue-like floors too... So what did you guy think of my longer chapter? :D Also what did you guys think of Linda's burst of anger? Was it called for, justified? Or was it too random and dumb? :O **

**Thanks for supporting and reading! :D**

**Big thanks to my beta InuChimera7410! I lah you lots Jar B Kat! XD lessthan3 Go check out her great fanfic of Hiei X OC! (but be sure to come back to me because I love you guys! lessthan3)**


	6. 6- Failed Trial

**A/N: Sorry I took so long ;A; My beta has gone on vacation right as I come back from one and so I was debating on whether or not to upload. But then I couldn't wait, so I said, 'Screw it'. So here's a rough, nonbeta-ed chapter 6 ;A; Sorry for any and all mistakes. OTL. When Jar B Kat (my beta's nickname) comes back, I'll be sure to reupload the better version! So read, review, and bear with my editing (not)skills!**

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From where she emerged, Linda took a right turn to find a peculiar room. The room was extremely narrow and stretched a small distance towards another right turn in front of her. She could vaguely make out some stairs going down at the end. Behind her was a small stretch and it had a framed picture hanging on the wall. Linda turned around again. All she had to do was go down the stairs to her next destination. That seemed simple enough. However, Linda didn't budge.

_There's always a catch, _she thought to herself. She noticed that the picture behind her was a part of a series of pictures that hung blatantly on the wall portraying a guillotine's blade in each frame. It seemed too simple and Linda didn't like it at all. Could she really just go to the end and down the stairs safely and without incident?

_Probably not._ Linda took a closer look at the pictures on the wall. It started out with the blade at rest on the ground. Linda craned her neck to look at the rest of the pictures. She didn't want to risk any movement without fully inspecting the room first. The next picture showed the blade a little higher, and the next one was even higher than that. The pictures were depicting the process of a guillotine's blade rising. Linda noticed that in the last picture, the blade was raised fully to the top because it wasn't visible in the frame of the picture. All it had was just the empty frame of the guillotine.

_Okay, now there's something wrong there._ Linda slowly inched closer to the blank picture. _Maybe the blade is actually out of the frame… _Linda took a second to think of how ridiculous that sounded when she remembered; a_nything is possible in this demented place._ When she got barely within a foot of the picture, she looked up for the missing blade. Then, almost immediately, Linda heard the sound of ropes whizzing out of their holds.

The glint of the blade was the only warning Linda received as it rushed down at an alarming speed towards her. Terrified, she stumbled back a couple of paces as a giant blade careened from the ceiling and rammed into the ground. The whole room shook and the floor splintered, cracking where the blade had impacted into the ground. Linda tried to maintain her balance and failed while simultaneously wincing at the thought that that could've been her. Then, as abruptly as it came, the blade retreated slowly into the ceiling.

Linda had to catch her breath again before standing up. Her smoker lungs were just not meant for this place. For the first time in forever, she began to regret the fact that she had ever smoked in the first place. When her heart rate returned to normal, Linda inched ever so slowly towards the stairs, expecting the worst, but the blade stayed put. When she got halfway through with no event, she sprinted towards the stairs and stumbled down into the next room.

Or next hallway. The whole hallway was red now. Red walls, red floor, even red ceiling. The hallway made a left turn up ahead and as Linda walked toward it, the shadow of a man flew out of the wall ahead and into the hallway's turn. Linda froze in place. _What the fuck was that?_ Linda shuffled closer to the corner and peered around the edge. Seeing no one, she proceeded to turn the corner cautiously.

There was a large painting on the wall to her left. "Breath" was the name of the painting. It depicted a white bird, possibly a dove, blowing into a large horn. Linda looked at it questioningly, but nevertheless continued on with her journey. This hallway led to another left turn. Before she turned the corner, she peeked suspiciously for the shadow man that flew by earlier. Then she turned the corner ever so vigilantly. After an eventless turn, Linda relaxed a bit and thought, _one more left turn and I would've walked in a complete circle, or, well, square_. She shook her head at her random outburst and concluded that she was pretty much going insane.

Linda walked down this third turn and saw a door and a writing desk at the end. She walked up to the desk and didn't need to hear the scribbling noise to know that it wrote down something in its weird language again. Still, Linda spared a brief look.

**_Raven, Linda 003et2: Survived Trial Three_**

_Whatever THAT means,_ she rolled her eyes. She had no idea why she was still wasting her time on reading it if she had no idea what it said. Linda shook her head for the umpteenth time that day and opened the door. Inside were two large sculptures and many paintings along the back wall. There was also a wide pillar stretched out to her right across the middle of the room. The first sculpture was of the upper half a woman, one arm under her breast and the other hand cradling her head. Her hair flowed down until the bottom of the sculpture which was near where her mid-thigh would've been, however, the only features that were distinguishable were from her stomach and up. The rest melted into a large bumpy cone-like stand at the bottom. She was also molded entirely in blue. This sculpture was titled "Uh".

_Weird name, _Linda commented. She then walked up towards the painting on the wall to the far left. It had a metal frame with a thin green line going through it. The title to this certain piece was "Heartbeat". Right as she read those words, the green line pulsed and passed a wave from one end to the other. It was like a hospital monitor or something. Linda was mildly surprised and curiously placed her hand on the cool metal frame. The monitor-like painting then began pulsing to the beat of her heart. _BA-DUMP. BA-DUMP. BA-DUMP._ Linda withdrew her hand immediately and the room fell into silence again as Linda stared shockingly at the painting. Nevertheless, it was pretty cool.

The next painting was that of a smoking man, and true to what it depicted, the title of the painting was "Smoking Gentleman". Linda let out a small had many guy friends who smoked, and not one of them was a gentleman. In fact, she was more of a gentleman than they were. Linda rolled her eyes at the fake reality painted on the canvas and walked by the long pillar and saw that there was a door to her left. Deciding to look at the rest of the room first, Linda walked in a circle around the pillar to find yet another painting. This one was a little hard to decipher, but it was titled "Peacock Pattern". Turning around to explore the other half of the room, Linda saw a red sculpture very similar to the blue one on the other side of the room. The sculpture was mirrored with the other one to a T. The only difference was its expression. Whereas the blue one was lamenting with her lips pressed in a thin line, the red one was wailing out in agony. The sculptures were so beautiful, and yet so lugubrious. Linda frowned and walked back to continue looking at the paintings. They seemed to be a lot more cheerful than the sculptures.

The next one in line was a painting of a blue dripping heart with an arrow piercing through the top right of the heart. The title was "Heart Wounds". _So much for being more cheerful. _She moved onto the last painting in the room. The painting showed a pretty lady from waist up with flowing brown hair that was apparently longer than her waist. She was wearing a red dress and her arms were crossed over her lap in a very ladylike manner. The title was "The Lady in Red". However, despite her elegant demeanor, Linda couldn't help but feel like there was something much more sinister than she could imagine. For one, the lady had blood red eyes that seemed to be staring straight at her. Linda shivered. Not once taking her eyes off the lady, Linda began to back up slowly towards the door. She felt that though the red eyes never moved, the lady was still following her movements. Watching her. After Linda felt like she was near enough, she tore her eyes away from the madwoman and made a dash for the thankfully unlocked door and ran in, slamming it shut.

The door gave off a loud click, but fortunately, that was it. Linda shut her eyes and pressed her back against the door. _Was that paranoia really called for?_ She wondered. Linda sighed and opened her eyes, taking in the new room. She saw two rows of bookshelves on either side of her. There was also another door at the other end of the room. Linda moved to go to the door, but a book to her right caught her eye. Contemplating her choices, Linda decided that she wasn't really in a rush and she walked over to the first row and pulled it out.

_I might as well try to enjoy the time I'm trapped here… _The book was named "Guertena" and it showed many of his paintings, sculptures and works. Linda finished skimming through the book and put it back. Browsing down the row for anything else to pique her interest, Linda happened upon a small piece of paper lodged between two books on a lower shelf. Kneeling down, Linda pulled it out and read it.

"HAVING FUN?" The paper asked. Linda gasped and quickly dropped the paper. She felt like that little slip of paper was mocking her. Hell, she felt like the whole damn gallery was mocking. Linda angrily grabbed the glaring white eyesore and hastily crammed it back between the books. She wasn't about to let the gallery continue mocking her. There was suddenly nothing left of interest to her in this row or this room. She was so done with place. Linda stood up and briskly walked to the other door at the end of the room. She grabbed the doorknob and yanked on it only to find out that the damn door was locked!

"Argh!" Linda slammed her fists against the door only to wince and recoil. She had forgotten her right hand was still injured. _Well, fine. You want me to play your little game? I'll fucking play your little game._ Linda clenched her teeth and wrenched herself away from the door. She walked towards the first row of books on the opposite side of the room from where she was. She figured she might as well start at the beginning. In that row, Linda found a book that stood out on the second bookshelf titled "The Girls in the Canvas". Linda opened the book and read the first page.

"The women here become very troublesome once they acquire a desire for humans. They'll always stubbornly chase things until they're satisfied, it seems… Anywhere, everywhere, to the ends of the earth…" _Yeah, no fucking kidding. That statue lady was bat-shit insane, _she griped and continued reading. "But if they have one weakness, it's that they can't open doors on their own." _Wait. What is this book saying? The statue was perfectly capable of opening that door. Does this mean..? _No. Linda refused to think of the possibility of there being different types of psychopathic women chasing her up and down the place. She didn't want to think there was, but she knew better. The gallery just kept throwing new things at her. Linda knew that she just have to be even more careful than she already was, and quite frankly, she didn't think that was even possible.

_Maybe this book is talking about that creepy painting I saw out there. The 'Red Lady' or something. _Linda cringed at the thought of her being chased by those creepy red eyes. _But wait. She's trapped in the glass, right? How would she get out?_ Linda pondered. In the end, Linda put the book back, refusing to think more on the matter. She had to find a key of some sort soon.

Walking diagonally across the room, Linda pilfered through the right side bookcases in the second row. There was really nothing to note. Frustrated, Linda moved to the last row of bookshelves. She scanned the titles of the book for anything that would stand out. Then she saw a book cover that seemed to be made in…_ crayon?_ Linda pulled it out, wary but curious. The title read, "Careless Carrie and the Galette de Rois: Moving Storybook" Just the title made Linda extremely suspicious. The book also seemed to be humming in her hands, brimming with life. She wasn't sure if she wanted to partake in this moving storybook. Plus it was made with crayon. Linda didn't like where things were going, so she put the book back in place.

Just as she did though, another book jutted out and Linda jumped back, startled. There wasn't even a title for this book. Linda eyed the book suspiciously. _Well, I ignored the other book. What difference would this make? Pushing in the other book seemed to do something so…_

CLICK.

There was a resonating click from the door she was trying to get through to. Linda felt her hope rise as she walked towards the door that was locked just a second ago. Turning the door knob ever so faintly, Linda smiled when her hand didn't jerk to a stop. She then quickly opened the door and walked out.

The door led into hallway that ran perpendicular to the door. There was a passage to her right and to her left, and in front of her was a painting of a beautiful aquamarine-colored vase, an actual aquamarine vase, and a writing desk._ Wait… _Linda paused for a moment._ It's a vase!_ She was a little thrown off by the different color at first, but when she looked in, sure enough, the vase was filled with swirling blue water. Linda thanked the Lord and put her rose in the vase, smiling as the whole vase lit up enchantingly like before. She could feel her injuries reducing to nothing more than mere scars. After the light died down, she saw that her rose had ten petals again. Reaching up to her cheek, Linda realized that the vase didn't heal past injuries, so the small scar on her cheek was still there, but she didn't mind. Yet, despite her relief, Linda still had her guard up and she noticed that the vase was still filled with water. Linda looked up at the painting's title.

"Eternal Blessing"

_Maybe that means this is forever?_ Linda could feel the hope rising in her throat. She tested her theory by plucking a petal off of her rose. While still wincing at the pain, Linda put the rose back in the vase and felt the pain immediately alleviate. The rose also had ten petals again. Linda smiled at her good fortune and stepped away to continue on her journey. She would be sure to come back here when her injuries got too rough. Then Linda remembered something else that seemed off to her.

There was a writing desk here, but no writing. She didn't remember hearing a scribbling noise and she sure as hell didn't see anything written on the blank page. Linda eyed it suspiciously, but what could she do? Write in it herself? She didn't even know what language, if it even was a language, it wrote in and, hell, there wasn't even a pen near the notebook so Linda just left it alone. After a moment's consideration, Linda decided to take a right turn and revisit the other side later.

As she walked down the right side, she passed a painting, labeled "Abstract Art", and another wriggling tongue painting. Carefully avoiding the path where it would spit, Linda walked until the end and then abruptly turned around. She said she'd visit the other side of the hallway later, but she didn't think that later would come so soon. The reason being that, though there was a door at the end, Linda saw that there was also a headless statue guarding the entrance to said door. Linda didn't want to be chased again, especially since there were no known holes for it to fall in now. Linda decided to not take any chances, even though there was a key at the feet of the statue. Steeling her resolve to not go anywhere near that statue, Linda made a beeline towards the other end of the hallway.

This opened up into a small room. The room would've been bigger, but there was another room jutting out from the wall. It gave the room Linda was currently in a lopsided u-shaped. The right end of the 'u' was wider than the other end, though both ends had a few steps that elevated them. Linda walked up the larger end and saw there were two posters on either side of a table with a vase on it. The vase had some water, but it was a gray colored vase, like the one she saw before the eternal blessing. Linda decided to leave it alone and read the posters instead. They were like the ones at the entrance telling her about her and the rose and how she was connected to them and whatnot.

Linda walked up to the room within the room and saw the door slightly ajar. There was also a window for this miniature room. Linda lingered at the entrance but decided that she didn't want to go in just yet. She peered through the window and found that she couldn't really see inside the room. It was extremely shady and Linda steered clear of that room, again, for now. Linda walked to the narrower end of the u-shaped room and saw a similar painting of "Red Lady" hanging there. The only difference was that the lady was wearing a blue dress and had blue eyes and, consequently, was titled "The Lady in Blue". She looked less sinister than her red kind, but Linda still felt uncomfortable around her. Linda turned around to leave, but that was possibly the worst mistake she had made since coming to this gallery.

When Linda got to the base of the steps, the glass from the painting behind her shattered and, before Linda even had time to react, the painting lunged out at her, bonked her on the back of her head, fell backwards, and landed facing upright on the elevated ground. Linda turned around, which marked mistake number two, and watched in horror as arms emerged straight out from the painting and then slammed into the ground, clawing. Linda stood rooted in place. Her legs refused to cooperate because they were paralyzed with fear.

As the hands continued clawing at the ground, Linda suddenly realized that clawing was not all it was doing. The lady was dragging her body out of the painting. The lady's head was now visible and she put her hands on the frame and pushed herself out from the frame. She only succeeded until the waist, since that was all that was painted, but that didn't stop her. Using her arms, the lady dug her claws into the ground and pulled her frame upright. Now that the frame was standing upright, the lady crooked her head and flashed Linda a malicious grin as her flowing hair hung all over her face. Then, with amazing agility, she began furiously crawling and clawing towards Linda. Linda only had a second to register what had just happened before the painting pushed itself off the higher ground and attacked her. At the last minute, Linda's legs were finally blessed with the gift of common sense and started to run. However, the lady in blue simply crawled faster. Her growl boomed behind Linda and she spared one second to look back to see how fast the lady was gaining up on her and that marked mistake number three.

Three strikes and you're out.

The lady took this as her chance and lunged again catching Linda by the waist. Linda screamed and ran backwards into the wall, crushing the painting on her back. The lady fell off, hissed, and scrambled into the room within the room. From the inside, the lady pushed against the door and closed it. Linda heard a click and she guessed that the door was now locked. Still gasping for air, Linda yelled, or she tried to, after the painting,

"Good… riddance… coward!" She wheezed as she leaned over and rested her hands on her thighs, trying to catch her breath. That didn't come out as strong and brave as she wanted it too. _Damn! I'm so out of shape, _Linda lamented when out of nowhere, two sharp pangs of pain shot through Linda's body. Linda let out a shocked gasp and instinctively reached for her pocket. Her rose was gone! _The lady must've taken it! That's why she fucking retreated! _From behind the door, Linda could hear the lady in blue sing,

"Loves me, loves me not…" There was a pause after the 'loves me not' and Linda could make out soft crunching noises behind the think walls. Linda cursed her luck and pounded on the door, trying to knock it down, but to no avail. The door was fucking locked! At first all she felt was a constant wave of tolerable pain, but then two more sharp pangs went through her and Linda fell to the ground, grasping her stomach. "Loves me, loves me not." The lady in blue sang gleefully behind the locked doors.

"Urgh…" Linda shakily got up. She needed to get her rose back, as soon as possible. _But where the hell can I find a key? Where else can I fucking go? _Suddenly, Linda remembered that there was a key at the foot of the headless statue. _Oh no._ Linda shook her head vigorously to try and shake out the thoughts, but then she decided that she would rather get chased than to die, so she quickly hobbled her way to the other end of the hallway. Halfway there, two more brain rattling waves of pain racked through her body and, this time, when she fell, black spots began dancing at the back of her vision. _I can't pass out now!_ Linda gritted her teeth and urged herself onwards. When Linda reached the statue, she swiftly, or as swiftly as she could in her condition, grabbed the key and limped out.

Thankfully, the statue didn't chase her. She was in no condition to run and she couldn't even begin to think what would happen if she had to deal with two fucking hazardous art exhibits. As Linda began making her way back, the single wave of pain hit her like a fucking tsunami and Linda fell sharply, face first, to the ground, hitting her head against the rough carpet. Her vision darkened and she struggled to keep her eyes open, but they wouldn't obey. Linda feebly reached towards the direction her rose would've been, but this time, the pain proved to be too much and she sank uneasily into unconsciousness. The key fell out of her outstretched hands as she spared one last look at the distance in front of her. She didn't even make it past the writing desk! _I'm going to fucking die, _she cried desperately, as she gave into the welcoming darkness that enveloped her whole.

**EPILOGUE**

All throughout the gallery the voices of thousands sang out as they began to rework their magic.

_Reset, reset! Back to the offset!_

_Fixing things up as best as we can_

_Beset, beset! Our kind we abet!_

_Tricking the whole ones according to plan_

In the wake of a stilled gallery, one could hear a giddy laugh as the haunting sound of a yellowed pen scratching symbols on paper echoed through the vast darkness. The gallery was being set in motion slowly, room by room by a young man as a younger girl finished writing her fourth entry in a small spotlight.

**_Raven, Linda 003et2: FAILED Trial Four_**

"Sweet dreams…" The spotlight flicked off in tune with a joyless laugh that rang throughout the gallery.

"And good luck."

**END OF PART ONE**

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**A/N: So what is this?! :O Linda is going to die?! :O :O :O How will she save herself now?!  
**

***don't read further if you don't want kind of spoilers that are going to be revealed in the next chapter anyways***

**STAHP IF YOU NO WANT SPOILERS**

**STAHP**

**STAHP**

**STAHP.**

**Okay so here's my explanation for the epilogue.**

**LAST CHANCE TO TURN AROUND!**

So the way I saw it, when Garry passed out, everything froze in the gallery until Ib came along. I kinda saw it as Garry went through what Ib did, but when he failed, the gallery restarted (hence my lame song/poem) and froze. Then Ib came in and went through each part that Garry did, but in the red room with The Lady in Blue, she saw blood there because Garry was human, therefore not part of the gallery, and therefore, the gallery couldn't take away his blood. That was also how The Lady in Blue was able to pick off enough of Garry's petals to make him faint, but not so much so that Ib didn't find dead Garry (;A; nuuu). So what I'm basically trying to say is that Lady eats/picks lots of petals, Garry faints, everything pause, Ib gets to red room and it unpauses so she has time to save Garry. And also, why the game didn't pause when Ib faints later on was because Garry didn't. So yea. If you think this is a little far fetched, please let me know. I don't want to continue this and have it be complete and absolute bogus.

**END SPOILERS**

** Thank you so much for your time! Hopefully I didn't waste it and as always, readers and reviews are loved! Next chapter is going back to the short ones, so hopefully those are releases quicker! Thank you guys soo much for reading! I love y'all! lessthan3!**


	7. 1- A Different Start

**A/N: I'm still beta-less, so sorry for any and all mistakes ^^; ehehe. Anyways, Read, review, and enjoy!~**

**EDIT: Hey anon, my reply to you is below!  
**

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**PART 2**

In the early afternoon under a gray sky, a young man stuffed his hands into his coat pockets and rushed into the art gallery. Up ahead he could see people idling about, enjoying the various paintings and sculptures Guertena had to offer. Eager to join the idling crowd, Zach took off his hat and put it in the large pocket of his long coat. The hat fit perfectly in his pocket because his aunt had made the coat specifically for him. She even added many more pockets for various items because she knew that Zach likes to carry a lot of items 'just in case' everywhere he goes. Zach looked up from his pocket just in time to see a young boy dash though the gallery. He pushed up his slipping glasses and got in line. Up at the reception's desk, Zach pulled out a twenty dollar bill and turned to the receptionist. He put the bill in the outstretched palm of the receptionist, held up one finger, and said,

"One adult ticket, please." The gray-haired receptionist smiled knowingly and pulled out a small pin and a ten dollar bill.

"Your change, sir." The receptionist put the money in Zach's hand and promptly dropped the pin on top of the change. "This pin is your ticket. Please keep it where I can see it and be sure to return it when your personal tour of the gallery is complete." The receptionist gave another knowing smile before turning to address the next set of customers. Zach couldn't help but overhear the receptionist giving the couple behind him wristbands as opposed pins.

_Maybe they ran out of pins?_ Zach thought as he fastened the pin to the top of his coat. Walking towards the open gallery in front of him, Zach noticed some stairs to his left and made a mental note to explore there later. He continued forward into the main gallery. Once inside, there was a small message on the wall that introduced him to the gallery.

"Welcome to the World of Guertena"

We truly thank you for attending today.  
We're currently holding an exhibition  
for the great artist Weiss Guertena.  
We hope you deeply enjoy the art of  
the late Guertena, whose creations  
carry such mystery and beauty both.

Next to the sign, was a painting of a child sitting by the piano being yelled at by his mother, or well that's what it looked like that to Zach. "A Well Meaning Hell" was carved into the plaque underneath the painting. Zach glanced down and saw the young boy from earlier staring intensely at the title. The kid had one hand propping up his other elbow and the other hand was wrapped around his chin as his brow furrowed in concentration. Then the boy seemed to give up and proceeded to look furtively around the room, before noticing Zach.

"Hey, mister?" The boy turned to Zach and bounced politely on his heels, his hands held behind his back. "What's 'hell' mean?" he asked innocently. Zach let out a small laugh and crouched down to look the boy in the face.

"That is a bad word," Zach pointed at the boy, "but the technical meaning is the underworld, or a tough trial to be faced."

"But my sister says it all the time, does that mean she's bad?" the boy looked at Zach with wide eyes. Zach bit his lip and thought a bit before replying with,

"Well, yes, and no. Your sister shouldn't be saying those words on a daily basis, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she is a bad person, no."

"Oh, okay." The boy looked back to the painting. "So why is this called 'A Well Meaning Hell?'" He questioned again. Boy, this kid was a curious one. Zach smiled. It was nice seeing little kids interested in art. Zach pushed up his glasses before continuing.

"Well, I think that even though it seems like the kid is going through a tough time, the mother has good intentions in disciplining her son." The boy lit up and beamed at Zach.

"Oh! I see! Can you help me with this one?" The boy pointed to the large painting in the middle of the floor behind Zach. "What's it called?" he asked, peering over the velvet ropes blocking the painting. Zach grinned at the boy before replying,

"Sure I'll help you." Walking around to the stand where the title resided, Zach read aloud, "'Abyss of the Deep' is the title. The rest says, 'A world where man will never stand… To realize that world, I decided that I would engrave it within the canvas.' You got that?" The boy nodded and pretended to take a picture for future references.

"Yup! No. A little? Wait. What does abyss mean? And engrave?"

"It's basically like an endless void, or hole. Engrave means to carve into something."

"Ohh!" The boy's eyes lit up before he turned away from Zach and began to talk to himself. "I get it! This is good! If I can't read, I can just ask him to read for me! And he's smart too! It has to be the glasses." The kid emphasized his realization by pounding his fist into his open palm. Zach suppressed a smile. That kid needed to work on his whispering. Once the boy was done, he turned back to Zach and struck a dignified pose. "I have made a decision! I'm going to interstate you as my cabin boy!" The boy's face spread into a goofy grin.

"Instate you mean?" Zach corrected the boy. He couldn't help but break out into a grin as well. The kid's smile was infectious.

"Yea," the boy smiled sheepishly, breaking his form ever so slightly. Then he regained his regal pose and jabbed a thumb at his chest. "I'm Leo! But you can call me Captain Leo! And you are now a part of Leo's crew of report making!"

"Aye, aye captain," Zach saluted, "but whatever do you mean by report making?"

"I have to make a good report of this downstairs gallery, but I can't see or read or understand a lot of the words, so I'm interstating – uhh I mean intrastating you as my cabin boy! Because you can help me!" Zach let out a chuckle and corrected Leo before making a serious face again.

"Instating. And are you sure you want to do this, boy? You just met me, how can you be so sure I won't be a mutinous cabin boy?" He pushed up his glasses, letting the convenient light glare and block out his eyes, and then cackled evilly for effect.

"Because you're playing along with me! And I don't know what mutinous means!" Leo beamed and stuck out his hand. Zach realized Leo was right. He had just played right into Leo's hands. Letting out a surprised laugh, Zach took the boy's hand and shook it.

"Alright Captain Leo, color me impressed! You're smarter than you look. I'm Zach, pleased to make your acquaintance." Zach flourished his statement with an exaggerated bow. After he came back up, Zach asked abruptly, "Wait, why do you have to do this again?"

"Because my sister is upstairs making a report from up there! I have to make my own report and she makes hers and we'll meet by the stairs to swap reports. But I have to make sure my report is top notch or else she'll sever my head!" Leo grasped his neck like he was afraid of his head falling off by the mere utterance of those words.

"Your sister sounds like a handful." Zach laughed. "Alright, I'll help you out. So where to first, Captain?"

"Wait." Leo looked up at Zach. "What's mutinous mean?"

And with that, the duo began their adventure throughout the gallery. After satisfying his curiosity of the word 'mutinous', Leo would run from painting to painting, or sculpture to sculpture, with Zach following closely behind. Zach would read and explain all the words Leo didn't understand. He also made sure to keep the boy's voice down when people began glaring at the two. Zach found out that Leo could get very loud when he was excited.

Near the end of their adventure around the downstairs gallery, Leo and Zach stopped at the last sculpture fenced behind velvet ropes. It was a sculpture of a red rose standing on its stem which was wrapped around to form a circular base. Thorns dotted along the stem and rose petals were littered around the base. It seemed to be made of a sort of smooth clay but it still looked very real. There was also a small sign on the side and Zach read it out loud for Leo because Leo wasn't tall enough to see it.

"'Embodiment of Spirit'. Beautiful at a glance, but if you get too close, it will induce pain. It can only bloom in wholesome bodies."

"Zach, what does emboodeemenent mean?"

"Embodiment," Zach corrected, "and it kind of means to give a form to. Like the title, 'Embodiment of the Spirit' means to give a form to the spirit. This rose, for example, could represent a spirit, possibly the spirit of its creator. Make sense?"

"Uh, a little." Leo shrugged. "But it's okay, I think I have enough information for it to be a top notch report! I won't lose my head." Leo beamed up at Zach. "Hey Zach? Can you come with me to find my sister? We could find her quicker if we split up upstairs." The boy gave Zach such a hopeful look that he couldn't possibly refuse. Besides, he was planning on exploring the upstairs gallery anyways.

"Sure thing Captain." Zach saluted the boy. "What does she look like?"

"Long black hair and green eyes. Thank you!" Leo smiled. Then Leo ran off towards the stairs before Zach could even caution him to slow down for the umpteenth time. He couldn't help but laugh as Leo sped off like a bullet. Suddenly, a paper fluttered down from behind the sign he had just read a while ago. The paper contained a small message.

"Seek out my fabricated world."

Zach eyed the paper suspiciously, but decided to pocket the paper anyways. He then continued upstairs to help find this 'Linda' person. Leo was at the top of the stairs waiting for him. When Zach reached Leo, Leo pointed the path they should take and sped straight off to look for Linda.

The upstairs gallery had even more great art to marvel at. Zach took a right turn and admired all the art. He made a mental note to come back and view it in more detail once he found Linda because a cabin boy does not simply disobey orders. Zach passed three, primary color colored, headless sculptures ("Death of the Individual"), a large, white and red, veiny sofa ("Reserved Seat"), a small painting ("Still Life on Table") and a large painting ("Fabricated World"). Zach stopped in his tracks. Pulling out the paper he had received earlier, Zach reread it and sure enough, this was it. But what was so special about it? Suddenly, the lights flickered a little, as if to give him a sign, but stayed on.

A coincidence? Zach shook his head and shoved the paper back in his pocket. He refused to believe it was a coincidence. The lights flickering right as he thought that must've meant something. Zach walked back out to the rest of the gallery only to find out that he was, unfortunately, dead right. There was not a soul in sight. No sound of chit chat, movement, laughter… Anything! The atmosphere itself felt more like a void than anything. Instead of providing Zach with breath, it felt like his breath was being taken away, and Zach didn't like this one bit. He ran downstairs in hopes that everybody had just simply moved downstairs all at once, but there was no such luck. Instead, he was even more _unlucky_ for the lights flickered a second time, but it couldn't hold on and the gallery was plunged into darkness.

"Frick!" Zach lamented his luck and fumbled around in the pockets of his coat pulling out a flashlight. Zach searched everywhere downstairs for Leo or for anyone, but everybody was gone. The doors were locked too. With no other place left to go, Zach made his way back up the stairs and walked to the painting that started it all. He inspected it carefully and, even though it was abstract, he didn't like what he could decipher.

The path looked dreary and there were red splashes of color –he could only hope it wasn't blood– everywhere. There was a lady or something in pink obstructing the path he could see and there was a red rose in the corner of the painting. On the other side was a lady in red in a frame floating on a red colored background. As Zach was inspecting the painting, he happened to shine his flashlight near the bottom of the frame and the reflection of the light beam caught his eye. The flashlight was reflecting on green paint seeping out of the frame onto the floor. The paint sank into the wall but left behind enough to show Zach a small message.

"come down below zachariah  
ill show you someplace secret"

The paint that seeped into the wall seemed to bubble up and rise out of the ground behind Zach. The paint formed a string of letters that spelled "COME ZACH".

Zach was a little more concerned that the gallery knew his name than to worry about the beckoning paint. But even if he did worry about the paint, he had no idea what 'down below' meant or where it would be. _I guess the most logical approach would be to go downstairs._ Zach thought as he maneuvered his way downstairs. Right when he entered the gallery downstairs, he knew something was amiss right away.

The velvet rope that fenced off the "Abyss of the Deep" painting on the ground was opened at one point. There were also black foot prints leading into the painting itself. Zach walked over to where the footprints were and peered into the painting on the floor. The dark waters seemed to swirl around and glisten like it was actually made of water. Curious, Zach knelt down and reached out to feel the painting to see if it really was water. He drew back his hand almost immediately when the icy water licked his fingertips. The a few drops of water drew back with him and landed on his clothes, but his clothes didn't retain the ghostly drops. It just passed through his clothes without leaving the wet stain water would normally leave. Zach was thoroughly freaked out and he tried to stand up to leave, but the painting seemed to have different plans for him. It already had a taste of him and it didn't seem like it was going to give him up so easily. Zach found that he couldn't move away. What more, the painting began to suck him in and Zach was flipped into the icy waters of the deep abyss.

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**A/N: Woah! Who is this Zachariah fellow?! hehe so there you have it! Linda's supposed salvation! :D Let's see if he can live up to it XD**

**I miss my Jar B Kat OTL She won't be back until the 6th of July! So if I update anytime before (which I might :D), I'll be beta-less TT^TT**

**Also, shout out to coleypepwars3679 for giving me my 10th review! :D (OTL I'm so pathetic)**

**To all my readers (I lah you!), all of your reviews really do mean a lot to me though, so thanks for that! It's what keeps me going! :D**

**Thanks! KC-Z out~**

**********EDIT: To anon, hopefully you see this,** but no, you didn't miss anything about Zach XD All the information will be revealed at a _really_ later time, but I can tell you that Zach has brown hair and blue eyes :D As for their age, well, I haven't really set it down in stone yet ^^; I'm kind of winging it as I go and hoping people don't ask/notice haha XD but I've been leaning towards Linda - 18 and Zach - 19... maybe.. Hopefully this answers your questions and if you have more, feel free to ask! XD


	8. 2- A Gamer's Realization

**A/N: OTL. I'm so sorry guys. I said I might upload before July 6, but vacation. OTL I'm sorry. But on the bright side, my beta is back XD Enjoy!~**

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Zach made quite an entry as he splashed through the painting and tumbled onto a set of jet black stairs. Rather than flipping onto his feet, he was dumped unceremoniously on his rear end, his glasses clattering of somewhere in the distance. Rubbing his sore bottom, Zach slowly picked himself up and dusted off his pants and coat before reaching for his flashlight. Even though the place he found himself in was already dimly lit, he could only barely make out that the whole entire place was decorated in a drab black color. Black walls, ceiling and floor. Unfortunately for him, his glasses had a black frame and the dim lighting did nothing to help him find it. Yet when Zach made a move to turn on his trusty dusty flashlight, he found out that it wasn't as trusty as he had originally thought. Despite his frantic clicking, the flashlight wouldn't turn on.

Zach could feel the panic begin to rise as he inspected every electronic he had on him only to find that everything else wasn't working, just as the flashlight. Even though Zach had emerged completely dry, all the electronics he had with him were as good as dead, as if by water damage or something of the like. Zach gave up trying to make anything work and waited instead for his eyes to adjust to the dim place. After it did, Zach squinted to try and actually see where he was. He noticed that the stairs he'd landed on led back up into the gallery above, but he didn't want to take his chances with that painting again. He's had enough of being tossed around in the unrelenting water. After having dully noted his surroundings, Zach began the search for his glasses. After a typical episode of groping around and treading lightly on the ground, Zach found his elusive glasses and gratefully straightened them on his face.

Looking up, he realized that he had stumbled down the other end of the hallway. The walls bled the words "COME" in a bright green paint as the hallway progressed to the end. At the end, there was a vase on a table in front of the door. When Zach reached the table, he noticed that there was a rose of the same green color as the words adorning the wall sitting in the vase. He decided to leave the rose there, but was curious as to what resided in the room behind the table. Using all his strength, Zach tried in vain to push the table out of the way, but it must've been super glued to the floor or something because it wouldn't budge at all. Then, looking up, he realized that on the other side of the table there was a sign on the wall.

"You and the rose are united,  
know the weight of your own life."

Zach read the sign and glanced down at the rose once more. He wondered if there was more to it than its misleading appearance let on. Suddenly, a specific work of art flashed through his head: the sculpture "Embodiment of the Spirit" back in the gallery.

_Could this rose be the embodiment of _my_ spirit? I would need to keep it healthy then and make sure nothing happens to it._ Zach took the rose out of the vase and placed it carefully in the pocket on the outside of his coat. He didn't want to squish it on the inside. And just like that, when Zach tried to push the table again, it moved easily, as if a heavy burden has been lifted. Zach sighed at his earlier wasted efforts and opened the door.

Zach entered a small room and, inside, there was a painting of a smiling lady with long, blue hair flowing out of the frame around the side and onto the floor. Underneath the center of the canvas, was another sign.

"When the rose wilts,  
so too will you rot away."

The small sign confirmed his theory. Zach pulled out his rose and carefully inspected it. _Whatever happens to this rose will happen to me. So if the rose withers, then so do I._ That wasn't very optimistic, but nevertheless, Zach could only accept it and vowed to guard the rose with his life because, well, it _was_ his life. Then, his eyes refocused on a glinting black key on the ground. Zach pocketed his rose again and leaned down to pick it up. When he straightened up and readjusted his glasses, he watched in horror as the lady's amicable expression quickly changed to one that was downright horrifying.

Zach took a shaky step backwards, but nonetheless pocketed the key. He had played enough video games to know a dungeon when he saw one. Zach spared a glance down at the rose sticking out of his pocket. Sure enough, he counted exactly eleven petals on there. That was not a coincidence. The rose was obviously his life points and this key would get him from one place to another. Quickly looking up again, Zach began to back out of the room slowly, never taking his eyes off of the creepy portrait. Only when he was completely out of the room and out of its sight did he allow himself to relax.

However, his relaxed moment was short-lived as he took in his surroundings once more. The words on the wall had changed into a glistening crimson color, spelling a different word. Zach couldn't decipher what it was saying, but that predicament was resolved rather quickly as Zach kept walking away from the door. The crimson paint abruptly seeped up from the ground forming the word "THIEF". Zach backed away from the paint and walked around it. He wasn't going to let this dungeon trick him into returning the key, or the rose. He couldn't even begin to think of the consequences of leaving his rose behind for any and all things to harm it. The rose was the embodiment of his spirit and he wasn't about to give his soul away. That would be a noob move.

Zach continued walking down the hallway, but when he got to the place where he'd made his shabby entrance, he realized that the stairs between the two paintings had disappeared. Vanished, poof, gone. Zach supposed it wouldn't be a dungeon if the easy way out wasn't somehow mysteriously blocked by some magical force or something. Zach muttered to himself about how unlucky he was to be stuck here and trudged on. At the other end of the hall, there was a black door and a writing desk near it. Zach tried the door, but it was locked. Zach grinned knowingly and fished the black key out of his front pocket then put it through the lock. The key disappeared and melted into the lock making it appear as if there was never a keyhole to begin with. Before Zach could open the door, he heard a scribble on the writing desk next to him. Looking over at the small book that resided on the desk, Zach could make out two lines written on it. The first one looked like this,

**_Raven, Linda 003et2: Survived Trial One._**

And the second line looked like this,

**_Strider, Zachariah 006kh7: Survived Trial One._**

Zach had no idea what it was saying, but he did recognize that the second word on the second line was his name. He'd gone through this phase where he wanted to learn how to write his name in as many languages as he could and he recognized this language as Greek. Yet, even so, he couldn't really decipher everything else. Quite frankly, he didn't want to waste the time doing so either. Zach just ignored the journal and moved onto the next room.

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**A/N: Yup! Zach's last name is Strider! :D (And psh. It has nothing to do with Homestuck at all...)  
**

**But as you guys can see, Zach is a gamer XD And despite how unlucky he thinks he has it, he's actually pretty lucky! XD **

**But as I said before, my Jar B Kat is home! lessthan3! (She's actually coming over today :3) So my chapters will have significantly less mistakes! XD ahaha ^^; Woo! :D And if any of you guys out there are Yu Yu Hakusho fans, check out her HieixOC fanfic! I just finished reading it and it's so good and worth your time XD **

**Well, thank you guys for reading and reviewing and I just love you guys! :D Also, leaving more reviews won't hurt XD Thanks for reading!~ **

**KC-Z out!**


	9. 3- Reckless Leap

**A/N: Okay, I'm just going to say this right now so that you guys don't get confused. I am for sure now. Zach is 21 and Linda is 19. For sure. And that's why I made Zach's rose have 11 petals, so don't get confused if you're wondering why he suddenly has 11 petals XD I'll explain the reasoning later, or rather, Zach will explain XD  
**

**Well, all explanations aside, enjoy!~**

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There was definitely a change of atmosphere in this room. The walls, ceilings, floor were all green now. Zach walked over to the right of the room and admired the random assortment of insect paintings. Oh, and one arachnid. Zach went to the end and entered through the door that was there. However, his advances were terminated when he perceived the gaping chasm that ran straight across the middle of the floor. The room was long and narrow, and the hole ran perpendicular along the length of the room. From where he was standing, he could see another door at the other end.

Zach paused to consider all possible consequences and decided that he could probably make the distance and the gains of an attempt outweighed the risk. Zach backed up to the wall trying to get as far from the hole as he could. When he felt like he could go no further, he decided at the last minute to take off his coat; he laid it on the floor and wrapped it protectively around his rose. He took off his glasses too and placed them there as well. No point in using them if he might just end up losing them. Besides, his vision wasn't too bad.

Then Zach broke off into a run. At the very edge of the chasm, he jumped.

Moving his arms and legs around in such a fashion as if to prolong his air time, Zach somehow managed and barely cleared the hole in the ground as he landed on the other side. He tucked and rolled safely and stood up to dust himself off.

_Hm, TV can actually teach me a thing or two,_ Zach beamed at his accomplishment. He walked over to the door at the end and opened it. Inside, there was a headless statue awaiting him. The statue was situated at the end of the room and he even recognized it as the one in the real gallery. "Death of the Individual". Then he saw, a few paces in front of the statue, a green key.

_Maybe this key opens a door somewhere in the other room, _Zach thought. He cautiously picked up the key and pocketed it, all the while keeping a wary eye on the statue. Suddenly, the statue released a roar and threw up its arms. He was startled and even more so when it began running towards him. Zach quickly regained his senses and bolted out of the door. Slamming it shut, he backed up into the wall near the door. Not taking any chances, Zach sprinted towards the chasm in the ground just as the statue broke through the door and began chasing him. However, Zach had the lead and he jumped over the chasm but when he landed, to his horror, his foot slipped and he started falling.

By some glorious, last minute sense of common sense, Zach was able to grab hold of something. Normally, he wouldn't have had the strength to pull himself up, because it's a lot harder in real life than movies would like to portray, but the adrenaline rushing through him and the imminence of danger looming right behind him gave Zach just enough strength to pull himself up and barely scramble onto the other side right as the statue lunged. Zach let out a manly scream -let it be known that the scream was VERY manly and not at all girlish in any way- as the statue was practically upon him. He didn't even have time to get up and run. All he was able to do was flip over and sort of crab walk backwards.

However, it turned out he hadn't really needed to because, luckily for him, the statue followed his path and slipped into the gaping hole, but _unluckily_ for him, the statue copied exactly what he had done and was able to grab hold of the floor as well.

Zach saw it climbing up and timed a kick, lashing out when he anticipated the head to appear. What he'd forgotten was that it didn't actually have a head and when his right leg lashed out, it hit nothing. Quickly reformulating his plan, he brought his leg down on the smooth surface of the neck. The statue lost its firm grip on the floor, but it clearly wasn't going down without a fight. The headless, but apparently not brainless, statue reached up at the last minute and managed to get a hand to latch onto Zach's ankle. He screamed out in pain as the sharp fingertips dug into his skin and tried to shake off his pursuer as fast as he could. Of course, the harder he shook, the more it gripped, and the more pain he felt in his ankle.

However, his efforts weren't entirely vain because the statue's iron grip finally began to loosen. Its hand slowly slid off of his ankle, but seeing as how the tips of its finger had already dug into his skin, as it went down, long, raw lines were carved down his ankle. He winced at the pain, but withstood it until at last, the hand finally fell completely off and the statue plummeted to its death below.

Only when the sound of shattering glass resonated from the hole did he let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Zach gazed down at his leg that was still hanging over the chasm and grimaced as he inspected the damage. The cursed statue had left him a souvenir of four long gashes, and the pain was nothing to laugh at either; it was pretty bad. Zach scooted, unable to stand, over to where his jacket resided. Immediately, he sought out his small 'medical kit' and pulled out the few alcohol swabs he had. He had never thought he would live to see the day when he would actually need them for himself. It was always everybody else around him who would need the medical treatment. When Zach finished disinfecting his wound, he looked for his meager amount of band aids and noticed with alarm that not one, but _two_ petals had fallen off of his rose.

_Wait, what?! Nothing should've touched this flower! How did a petal fall off? _Zach then remembered the gashes on his ankle. _Could it be that because I got injured, the rose did too? Man, I really am connected to this. Okay, I definitely need to be more careful. There are nine petals left. _After a moment, Zach smiled bemusedly despite his situation. _Nine lives left. I'm kind of like a cat._ Then, he located the band aids and pretty much used up his whole supply trying to pitifully patch up his injury. He only had about one or two left when he was done.

Zach sighed and wrapped the blood soaked alcohol swabs in the band aid wrappers and threw everything in the pocket designated for trash. Picking up his glasses, he put them back on and tried to stand. Leaning on his left leg wasn't too bad, but Zach wanted to see how much it would hurt if he tried putting weight on his right leg. He didn't have to put much pressure because if the pain that shot up his leg wasn't evident, he didn't know what was. Zach cursed his luck again and limped out of the room. Zach hobbled back towards the door where he entered this place and was mildly surprised to see an ant speak up and talk to him. After what had just happened, a talking ant wasn't very high on his list of surprises.

"Hi! I'm an ant. That was a nice jump you made there mister, but you know, you could've used my painting. Ants are pretty strong you know?" Then the little ant went back about his business, scurrying around. To say Zach was perplexed would be an understatement. One, an ant was talking to him. If he wouldn't have been able to feel the very real pain in his leg, he might've thought he was dreaming. Two, there were paintings of insects and one arachnid on this wall, but there wasn't one of an ant. Zach shook his head and continued on his journey. The left end of the room turned right into a hallway. However, there was a pillar in the middle in front of the hallway with a plaque that read,

"Beware the edges".

Zach had no idea what it meant by edges, but he figured the edges of this pillar would technically be the same as the walls of this pillar. He walked around the pillar and took extra precaution to not touch the edges. When he got to the hallway, he froze. The hallway gave off a very ominous air and Zach decided that he would just play it safe and avoid all walls.

Zach stood in the absolute center and began his timid trek, well, limp down the hallway. One third of the way there, there was a resounding roar. Zach stood rooted in place and braced himself for the impact. He had a feeling that if he moved, something worse could happen. A shadowy arm shot out from the wall to his right and came alarmingly close, but then stopped abruptly, centimeters away from his arm. Despite the fact that it couldn't reach him, Zach was still pretty disturbed by the writhing, wriggling arm sticking out of the wall. The grabby hand wasn't much of a help for his nerves either.

Nevertheless, Zach continued on and when the second roar resounded, Zach still held his place. It was a good thing he ignored his impulse to jump the opposite way because this time, the arm shot out of the opposite wall. But because he was in the middle, it didn't reach him. Zach pushed up his slipping glasses and steeled his resolve to keep going.

The third time, the arms came from both sides of the wall. Zach was startled, yes, but he didn't move a muscle, he didn't dare. After he cleared the hallway, he relaxed and continued limping when, without warning, as if the gallery had a sick sense of humor, another arm shot out from the wall in front of him. Startled, Zach jumped back a few paces and landed painfully on his right leg. He buckled a bit but then remembered the arms behind him and he forced his body to stop abruptly, sucking in the pain.

The arm, about the same length as the ones in the hallway, couldn't quite reach him. Zach let out a slow breath and slowly inched sideways out of the arm's reach.

_Well, I'll sure remember to stay away from _all _walls. _Zach turned away with a sigh; then his eyes widened, noticing another painting on the wall next to the wriggling arm. Zach limped up to the painting and examined it. He couldn't believe it. There really had been an ant painting. It was a little wider and about the same length as the hole he crossed. He reached up and found that it even came right off of the wall. He could've used this to cross the chasm!

Zach rolled his eyes but then after a beat thought that if he _had_ used it, then the statue could've crossed it too. That made him glad he didn't. Zach rested the ant painting against the wall and pushed up his glasses again before making his way to the door. The writing desk next to the door made its scribbling noise again, but Zach was beyond caring. Pushing the key into the lock, he turned it and opened the door to continue onto the next room.

* * *

**A/N: So sorry it's so late, but it's getting closer and closer to college DX I'm not looking forward to it at all... I hope I can still update 'regularly', which is not much I guess. But I will try! **

**Big thanks to InuChimera7410! She's the bestest Jar B Kat (beta) a person could ask for! Thank you so much! **

**Well, here's a usual sign off, please review if you guys can, it would mean so much to me! It really does means a lot to me when you guys take your time to write a small review. Thank you so much for your continued support!  
**

**KC-Z out!~**


	10. 4- 1-Up Vase

_Aaand that's a cat._ Well, technically, there was a wall that weirdly resembled a cat. Also where the cat's mouth should've been, there was a fish-shaped hole. _Speaking of nine lives..._ Zach cringed. He wondered if the dungeon was mocking him because of that thought he had earlier.

_Hogwash. They can't read my mind, can they?_ He shook off the scary question, but took the extra precaution to watch what he thought about. Looking around, Zach brought his thoughts back to his current predicament. First off, he noticed that the room led to two different rooms. One on the left and one on the right. Second, he assumed that there was a missing fish for the fish-shaped hole, and he would likely find it in one of the two rooms. Zach figured that one room could be a trap whereas the other one held the key. It might seem absurd, but it definitely wasn't unlikely.

_Well, lucky left I guess._ Zach slowly made his way to the left room and when he got inside, he saw two rows of four pillars on either side of him, eight pillars in total. This room didn't seem like a trap, but nevertheless, Zach kept his guard up. He limped up to the pillar that looked different than the others on his right and jumped slightly when a stickman casually appeared on the pillar. Simultaneously, there was a scribble noise as yellow words appeared underneath the stickman.

"Play hide and seek?" the words asked as the little stickman suddenly vanished.

"…What?" Zach looked around and noticed that each of the other pillars had a curtain and a button underneath. _I guess I have to find this dude in one of the seven curtains...? _Zach turned around and limped to the pillar directly across from where he was standing. _I guess I'll start with this one._ But before he could press the button, he stopped himself.

_Wait, no. That's too obvious. Maybe I should move past two pillars because if they're one step ahead of me, I need to be two steps ahead of them!_ Zach passed two pillars and stopped in front of the fourth pillar in the bottom row, near the wall. As his finger hovered above the red button, he stopped again as a previous precaution played across his mind.

_Wait, no, that's absurd. I have to stay away from walls. _Zach moved down a pillar and stopped at the third pillar in the row. _This has to be it._

Zach tentatively reached out and pushed the button. In his own self-assurance, he'd completely forgotten about all the pillars behind him. Luckily, he didn't need to remember.

WOOSH.

The curtains drew back and revealed a stickman encased on paper. Suddenly, the scribble noise happened again and Zach looked down to read what it said. "Found me, you get prize."

THUNK. Zach spun around towards the noise, fearing the worst. There was a painting in the back behind the pillars where a knife had chopped a fish in half. However, the only thing that was odd was that the head of the fish, which should have been in the painting, was now lying on the floor as defined and three dimensional as it could get.

Zach limped over to it and picked it up. After adjusting his glasses, he examined it. It seemed to be made of wood and was painted blue. Deciding that half of a fish key was better than none of a fish key, Zach pocketed the fish head, glanced around the room once more, slightly on edge, and then left the room.

Zach went up to the fish-shaped hole in the cat wall, and put the head in. Sure enough, it was a perfect fit. Now, all he needed to do was find the other half. He retrieved the fish head from the hole, not wanting to lose sight of it, and hobbled to the other room.

Upon entering the other room, Zach had half a mind to turn around and leave immediately. He was sure that this room wouldn't be much of a trap, now that it had a purpose, but it could still be dangerous, and quite honestly, he's had enough of statues and sculptures and anything else resembling something or someone that could chase him, and this room was full of said atrocities.

Thankfully, the other half of his mind knew better than to run, because there really wasn't anywhere else to run to. Sighing, Zach glanced over the room and decided that the detour path was better since it housed no immediate danger that he could see. He shuffled down the upper path and stopped in curiosity when he came across a vase with water in it.

Now as to why there was a random vase there, Zach didn't know, but he did know that in video games, there was usually a way to replenish life points. Zach pulled out the rose and after some thought, decided to put it in the vase because, well, water helps plants grow, right? Besides, he found his rose in a vase, so it shouldn't do harm._ Right?_

Pushing away all negative thoughts, Zach put the rose in the vase and hoped for the best. The rose suddenly glowed blindingly as beams of light shot out from the vase. Zach was relieved to see the petals reforming on his rose and feel the pain from his ankle slowly fade away. Instinctively, he looked down to check on his injuries before realizing that he couldn't actually see what was happening to the gashes in his ankle since he had covered them up with band aids.

However, on an educated whim, Zach put weight on his right leg and was amazed to find that it was healed. He could walk normally again! After the glowing stopped, Zach picked up his rose and noticed that the vase was now empty. Noting that the vases were only a one time use, he decided to not waste the vases he came across. Then, something in the room began to shake.

Zach looked around and noticed that one of the big, head statues was moving by itself. Zach began to back up towards the entrance and saw that it followed him on the main path. Zach moved back towards the vase not wanting the head to reach the entrance of the path he was on. Then he saw a plaque lying on the ground near the vase. It was blocking the statue head's path and Zach hatched an idea. Zach walked to the far wall and waited for the statue to pass the plaque and hopefully fall over. The large head sculpture followed suit and began dragging its heavy self over in that direction.

The sound of shattering glass filled the empty silence and Zach brought his arms up to cover his face. He gave himself a congratulatory, mental pat on the back because the statue did exactly what he wanted and more. Inside the shattered fragments of the large head, there was a stark blue piece amidst all the gray. Zach walked over and fished it out of the sea of fragments.* Success! In his hands, Zach held the other half of the fish key.

Zach pulled out the fish head and stuck the two together. The thin line that was separating the two parts suddenly fused into one to make a sleek, seamless wooden fish. Zach hurriedly ran back outside, careful to avoid the shards, and inserted the fish key into the slot.

CLICK.

The room exploded into a cacophonous chorus of meows as the wall where he put the key sank back on itself and formed yet another pathway. Zach almost jumped out of his skin. Composing himself, he made a very important decision to not try to decipher anything and just move on, lest his head explodes. So Zach ignored the pounding 'why's' and 'how's' accumulating in his head and he pushed up his glasses and moved on.

* * *

*Hah. Too much on the puns? XD

**A/N: I updated! :D I did better than last time! I think.. Well, it doesn't matter, because I'll be breaking all records, with the next one! Chapter 5 or 11 (whichever you guys prefer to call it, I guess) will be up sooner than you think! :D Consider this a last push before college comes and consumes me ;A; I'll leave you guys with two chapters instead of one! I really hope you guys are enjoying this, and please leave a review if you are! It really means a lot and it keeps me going!  
**

**Thank you guys so much for reading my fanfic, and I'll update again in a while XD For now, I'm going to bed XP  
**

**KC-Z out~**


	11. 5- Who Punches Glass?

**A/N: Here's Chapter 5/11! :D Enjoy!~**

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Zach walked into a room of the same color as the last one, but it was more… _normal_ and less cat like branching off into three sections. Zach made a decision and headed towards the path to the far left for it seemed to be the smallest section and would probably be the quickest one to explore. There was a writing desk, a white painting, and a black painting with a blue smiley face with its tongue sticking out.

The peculiar thing about the blue smiley was that the tongue was actually wriggling back and forth. It became even weirder still when Zach walked past it and had a blue glob of... of _something _spat at him. Zach sidestepped the glob as it hissed into the ground.

_Ooookay? _Zach arched an eyebrow as he made another one of his famous observations. _Blue faces etched on black equal evil and a little bit rude..._ Zach filed that thought away and walked up to the all-white painting next to it to get a closer look.

_Why would someone leave a blank painting up and __**frame**__ it no less? Unless… _Zach brought his face up to the painting. He got so close that he had to push his glasses over the top of his head to examine the painting properly, being near-sighted and all.

After a thorough inspection, Zach noticed a small, red 9 printed in the center of the painting. It was barely even visible, so Zach knew it had to be of some importance. Otherwise, why would they go through the trouble of hiding it?

Zach reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pen. He didn't have any paper, so he scribbled 'red 9' on the back of his left hand, just in case he forgot. He tucked his pen away and inspected room once more before he felt confident that he hadn't left any clues behind. Zach turned around to walk down the middle hallway this time. Before he did though, he noticed a small plaque on the ground. Picking it up, it read,

"Just when you've forgotten."

_Forgotten what? _Zach mulled over everything he'd been through since entering into this bizarre dungeon. He brainstormed a few possibilities, but when he actually took a look down the hallway, a rush of ominous air confirmed his suspicions and the several possibilities he'd thought of dwindled down to only one. Steeling his nerves, Zach took a tentative step down the middle of the hallway. The relatively fresh memory of the green insect room floated to the shore of his mind.

Zach started walking, keen on keeping directly in the middle, and about 2/3rds of the way through, one arm shot out from his right and wriggled hungrily. Zach easily ignored it and walked into another intersection.

_That wasn't too bad, _he smiled. _Glad I knew it was coming._ Zach glanced to his left and spotted a golden door, but when he turned to check his right, he paused, slightly disturbed. Several unsettling and eerie dolls hung limply from the ceiling; though their stares were empty, he couldn't help but feel uneasy all the same. With a sigh, he figured that as much as he wanted to go towards the golden door, he could solve the doll puzzle quicker and thus get out of there quicker. Wandering through the vines of dolls, Zach saw that there was another golden door on this side as well. The only difference was that this door was surrounded by green foliage. Daring to test his luck, Zach crossed his fingers and tried the door.

His face fell and me muttered and annoyed "Figures" when the knob didn't budge. Having already set his mind on finding a key, he was surprised to notice that there was actually no key hole for one. In this case, apparently, the 'key hole' to the door appeared to be a combination lock with three number dials, currently set at 0 0 0. Above the lock was an equation.

"X x X + X = ?"

The larger X's were all color coordinated. The first X was green, then the next one red, and the last purple.

_Well, I suppose the number 9 goes in the middle. _Zach took out his pen and wrote the equation underneath his previous note. He made sure to line up the middle 'X' under the '9' so that there wouldn't be any confusion. He also added 'G' and 'P' underneath their respective 'X's' to represent the color. Putting up his pen, he thought, o_kay, now I have one third of the equation figured out,_ _but where is the rest of it?_ Zach walked back towards the creepy dolls hoping to find a hidden number engraved on their skin or something.

Zach examined their faces fruitlessly. The skin of those dolls seemed spotless and he couldn't get closer to them since they were all hanging high up. _I wish I could examine their clothes…_ Zach gazed up at the dolls and tried to think of a way to solve this 'puzzle'.

_ How can I examine them if they're so high up?_ Zach looked around and saw that there was one that wasn't too high up and he walked over to it. He began to inspect its clothes when all of a sudden, there was loud thud behind Zach.

Startled, he spun around to face whatever had sprung out only to find that a doll that had been dangling out of reach just a moment ago had fallen to the ground. Zach walked over to the newly accessible doll. Sure enough, there was a tag sticking out of the clothes it was wearing and he smugly notices that the number 18 was printed clearly in green. Zach wrote '18' over the first 'X'.

_Okay, so now I have red and green, all that's left is purple. _Zach walked back over to the other golden door he had neglected earlier. Beside the door were yellow painted words titling the room "The Liar's Room". Zach noted right off the bat not to trust whatever was in this room. He opened the door to find that there were six paintings of dark figures in different colored clothing. Right in the middle of the figures was a door.

Zach could tell by the yellow lines of paint that each painting had something to say, and he also knew that he couldn't trust them. But the sign outside didn't say anything about the room behind this one, so Zach made a beeline towards the glimmer of hope betwixt a room full of lies.

When Zach walked through the door, the first thing he noticed were the series of defined square tiles pressed onto the ground. The tiles filled up the whole room except for the middle where Zach could see a statue of armor standing erect. Zach slowly walked closer and was in the middle of inspecting the armor when suddenly, pressured air hissed through the statue's helmet.

"There's an odd one out…"

Zach's heart leaped out of his rib cage. The statue didn't release air, it spoke. Refocusing on what the statue told him, Zach realized that it must have been referring back to the paintings in the last room. According to the statue, there was an _odd one out_; from all the liars, there would be be one with the truth.

Zach walked back out of the room, entirely expecting to spend a little while reading their inscriptions and deciphering the room when all of a sudden, Zach realized something for the first time. The glass where the faces of the paintings, from the left to right, one, three, four, five, and six was broken as if some person had punched them all in the face. Red drops of _something_, Zach could only hope it wasn't blood, were scattered and mixed with the broken shards on the paintings and on the floor. Frowning, he could only hope someone hadn't been dumb enough to do that.

The second painting from the left seemed untouched and perfectly fine. However, when Zach neared it, he could feel sadness emitting from it. It was weird. Nevertheless, after Zach had double checked what every painting had to say, Zach decided to go with the untouched painting of a black figure in brown clothing.

"Stand in front of the statue,  
go east 4 steps, then north 2 steps.  
That's the answer!"

Zach walked into the room with the suit of armor again and walked 4 steps east and 2 steps north. He pulled up the tile at his feet, and sure enough, there was a purple 4 printed on the other side of the tile. Zach didn't even have time to register the math equation on his hand, for at that moment, there was a loud screeching booming noise resounded in the other room followed in quick succession by slashing and choking noises and finally the sound of glass shattering.

_That did not sound good._ Zach rushed outside and adjusted his glasses to find absolute carnage. The carnage seemed to be spread across all the paintings but Zach couldn't help but notice that it was directed at the painting that had helped him. He couldn't help but feel a little angry. Not angry enough to punch glass, but he was pretty pissed off. Those other paintings that were brandishing weapons in the air had no right to take away the brown one's life. Zach was now pretty glad that the broken glass had distorted their faces to look uglier and more sinister. He wondered if the glass did anything at all or if their faces were naturally twisted and wicked. Whatever the verdict, it was darkly suiting.

Zach left the room as quickly as he could and walked over to the foliage-covered door. Zach looked down at his hand and did the equation in his head.

_18 times 9 is 162, plus 4 is 166._ Zach quickly put in the cod and the door clicked. Zach took that as a signal of the door unlocking and he eagerly pushed the door open, dying to get this dungeon over with.

However, as the door opened, his hopes fell for it was another dead end. It was just a normal room with trees; there was even an apple in one of them. Zach, suddenly excited at the thought of having a little snack, walked over to the apple and picked it out, but only then did he notice something.

The apple was made of wood.

His first feeling was disappointment, for after all his hard work, he couldn't enjoy this small treat, but then he realized that he probably wouldn't have trusted it anyways and the disappointment was replaced with an overwhelming sense to slap himself, _Be logical!_

The fact that the apple was wooden reminded him about a certain fish key and he pocketed the apple. Finding nothing else of use in this room, Zach left the room and walked back down the doll hallway to get to the joint hallway.

He remembered that there was still one last area he hasn't explored, but when he was halfway through the joint hallway, a hand shot out from his right, which in this case, is the opposite wall from earlier. Zach recoiled a bit, but he held his place, gritted his teeth and nervously moved on.

_Okay, that was a little daunting, _he he got through the joint hallway, Zach took a left turn and walked towards the branch of the room he hadn't explored yet. Zach passed a precautionary sign written in yellow paint that read,

"BEWARE OF LIPS". Zach looked at the sign a little confused, but when he continued walking and got to the end of the hall, he understood. There was a pair of protruding lips on the wall at the end. Zach smiled, having already expected something equally baffling. But what he didn't expect was that the lips could speak.

"Hungry… Give food…" The lips spoke out in a booming voice. Zach dropped his smile and froze for a bit, not really sure of how to deal with hungry lips. "That food… Give to me…" _The apple?_ Zack thought. It was pretty hard to know for certain when the lips didn't have any finger to point with. Still, Zach withdrew the wooden apple from his coat and held it out for the lips. The pair of lips then stretched and bit off the apple and crunched it to smithereens.

Then it spoke up again. "This tasty… I let you pass now… Go through my mouth…" Zach didn't even have time to comprehend what it was saying before it unhinged at the mouth and created an opening large enough for Zach to fit though. _I'm not sure I want to go through that…_ Zach stared skeptically into the gaping mouth in the wall. However, the fact that he could actually see the other room at the end was what swayed him in the end. Zach stepped on the tongue and felt his feet sink into its squishiness before continuing on though the darkness of the cave of the mouth.

* * *

**A/N: And with that, I leave to college D: Now this might or might not mean that I won't update often, I won't actually know. I also don't want to falsely promise things, so I'll just say this, expect updates, but don't expect them to be regularly. Thank you guys so much for sticking with this story and I hope you'll enjoy the countless other storied I'll have to offer! **

**As usual, please leave a review! It would mean so much to me! **

**Thanks a bunch, lessthan3.**

** KC-Z out~**


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